Customs
Kukeri
The masquerade games and customs in Bulgaria have an ancient origin and could be observed as inherent to the ancient heathendom. With their strange clothes made of fur, cut shirts or women’s clothes, sewn up of bands, a mixture of national costumes and animal masks and horrifying faces, with continuous ringing bells of different in size and sound, these masquerade games and customs with their lively dancing ritual steps reflect the eternal fight between Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. On the last Sunday before Lent, masked kukeri perform ritualistic processional dances to ward off evil spirits and ensure fertility at the onset of the growing season.

Customs
Baba Marta - Martenitsa
On the first of March we celebrate the beginning of spring. The day is called Baba Marta (or Grandma Marta in English). On that day you give a special present called a “martenitsa” to all the people you love. A “martenitsa” is small, two coloured and made of thread - white and red. Usually they (the martenitsas) look like a girl and a boy together. When someone gives you a martenitsa you should wear it either on your neck or pinned on your shirt until you see a stork. After that you can hang it on a blossoming tree for fertility.

Customs
Nestinarstvo (fire-dancing)
Nestinarstvo (Fire-dancing) is one of the most mysterious phenomena in Bulgarian history and folklore. May 21- the day of Saints Constantine and Elena -Nestinarstvo, or fire dancing; practitioners walk barefoot on hot coals in small rural villages in the Strandzha mountains (or increasingly in tourist resorts) in this pagan event marking the arrival of summer. It is believed that the ritual is descended from Dionysian rites practised by ancient Thracians. The mistress of the house got up long before sunrise to bake a fresh round loaf, decorated on top with different symbolical images and magic signs designed to ensure rich crops. She would also cook a chicken stuffed with rice, and fill up a buklitsa (a wooden wine bottle) with wine.