Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

Bulgarians in Bessarabia keep the tradition of a special game with Easter eggs

Photo: Private archive

Games where the main character is the egg are probably not very many. In Germany, for example, on Easter, families visit the church, and then children look for eggs in the garden, hidden by the Easter bunny - a symbol of fertility. If we look for information, however, we will find a less popular tradition preserved in the territory of today's Bessarabia, where many ethnic Bulgarians live.

"All the eggs are placed on a line - one by each participant. Then, with a tennis ball, the participant tries to push an egg out of the frame in which they are enclosed. Each egg that comes out is a trophy for the one who hit it. The game took place in the street, and a bed of sand and earth was made for each egg, in which it could stand straight," the ethnographer from Moldova Galina Manolova told us.


"When I wrote about this game, I was sure that it still existed, and what was my surprise when it turned out that the game was completely lost! I found that it was known not only in my native village of Kairaklia, but also in the surrounding, mainly Bulgarian villages", clarifies Galina Manolova. "I was looking for materials to see if this is not a Moldovan, Ukrainian or Russian loanword, but this game is observed only among Bulgarians."

On Easter with the Bulgarians in Moldova, we have an interesting publication from the collection of Radio Bulgaria, in which you can hear the researcher's story about the almost forgotten Easter game of our compatriots in Bessarabia and her wish for more peace and light in our souls:



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Mastering sign language can be interesting, enjoyable and very useful

There are 120,000 deaf people in Bulgaria, according to unofficial data. Many of them do not want to learn sign language, although it is useful to them. There is no translation in schools for deaf children... All these are objective facts that become a..

published on 5/30/24 8:10 AM

The remains of Tsar Ferdinand I now lie in Vrana Palace

The coffin containing the remains of Tsar Ferdinand I (born 1861 - died 1948) has been placed in the central foyer of the Vrana Royal Palace in Sofia for viewing. They will then be transferred to the family crypt in the palace. They were flown to..

published on 5/29/24 4:42 PM

Lost hikers found in the Balkan Mountains by AML

Hikers who got lost in the Balkan Mountains near Kotel were found in a rescue operation.   The incident was reported to the emergency number 112 at 19:49 yesterday. The tourists said they did not know their exact location and had only one mobile..

published on 5/29/24 2:46 PM