The Kukeri: A ritual to ensure the advent of Spring

In the rural (farming) villages of Bulgaria, the "Kukeri" is a important masked ritual, carried forward from the Thracians. They dance in the last days of the winter, just before nature comes back to life.

The participants in this ritual usually are male only, dressed in sheepskin garments and wearing scary masks and chanove (copper bells) on their belts, dancing and singing Christmas songs and chants, with the intention to scare away the evil spirits or ghosts which people believed came back to the living ones in winter.

The esoteric meaning in Kukeri is that through a prayer to the god of vegetation together with magical operations there may be obtained a sympathetic influence over nature using the energy of phallic dances performed within orgiastic rites as well as in the final act of plowing and sowing (which is the same through the direct magical connection phallus-plow / vagina-earth / semen-grain) in order to increase fertility

The ritual is a mixture between Christian and pagan traditions and symbols. There is a strong correlation between the event and the peasant life. It is a unique folklore, which can be seen only in Bulgaria. The traditional mask is multi-coloured, covered with beads, ribbons and woolen tassels. The dress too, is colorful and florid once again up to the individual imagination. The heavy swaying of the main mummer is meant to represent wheat heavy with grain, and the noisy clanging of the bells is intended to drive away the evil and sickness.

As recently as the end of the 19th century, the importance of the Kukeri was so considerable that fightings between two different Kukeri groups from neighboring villages often resulted in real, not imitative, murderings.

This UTUBE video shows a Bulgarian street folk carnival Kukeri in Pernik:
.