16th International Festival of Masquerade Games

The 16th Festival of Masquerade Games, the most prestigious event of traditional folk masquerade games in Bulgaria and South-East Europe, organized by Pernik Municipality, took place from January 25 to 27. Going by the posters displayed in the exhibition of all its previous editions at the Palace of Culture, evidently it was first staged 40 years ago, when the municipality encouraged the residents and guests of the town to go to Krakra Square to experience the triumph of a living folk tradition. Since 1995 the festival has gained international recognition and Pernik has become a member of the Federation of European Carnival Cities.

This year it was opened with the gala spectacle The Power of Good. The title synthesizes the quintessence of dozens, even hundreds of ritual scenes acted out by disguised men, who in anticipation of the spring, with their masks and the deafening sound of cow-bells drive away evil and ensure the good of their kin and the community throughout the coming agricultural year. The performers of this ancient rite, nowadays perceived more as a game, manifested their talent this year with particular zeal, convinced that their ritual frightens away the evil not only from their town or village, but also from United Europe, whose equal citizens they will be at the next edition of the international festival.

Eng. Antoaneta Georgieva, Mayor of Pernik Municipality and Chairperson of the Organizing Committee, opened the festival and wished the residents of Pernik, who have always known how to enjoy themselves, to keep up their traditions alive. The address of Mr. Ivailo Kalfin, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, to the participants and guests expressed confidence that the ritual driving away of evil at the next festival in Pernik will acquire a novel quality on the territory of the European Union.

The way in which the sourvakars burnt evil and paved the way to Europe in the beginning of 2006 was strongly impressive for Baron Henry van der Kroon, President of the Federation of European Carnival Cities, who attended the festival for the eighth time running and was proclaimed Honorary Citizen of Pernik last year. “Your festival is like an embellishment for Europe. Your culture and traditions will enhance your image in the European Union,” the Dutch nobleman commented with satisfaction from what he had seen.

The masquerade games attracted representatives from 16 regions (Burgas, Blagoevgrad, Kyustendil, Montana, Pazardjik, Pernik, Plovdiv, Rousse, Silistra, Smolyan, Sliven, Sofia, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Shumen and Yambol), 31 municipalities, 80 settlements – a total of 4,594 Bulgarian participants, as well as 178 guests from six European countries: Northern Ireland, Italy, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and two groups from the Republic of Macedonia.

Once again, the sourvakars from Pernik outnumbered all the others by far – 2,443 in all. They are most colourful, unsurpassed with their three-meter tall effigies. An effigy from the village of Svetlya is housed in the most famous museum of masks in Belgium.

From the lighting of the big carnival fire on Friday night in front of the Place of Culture until the late hours of Sunday, Pernik lived in the world of carnival, where the sourvakars and the koukers from all ethnographic areas of Bulgaria demonstrated their skills as did their guests from various parts of European. There also appeared and disappeared mythical horned monsters from Slovenia. Italian mummers from the island of Sardinia matched the peal of their bells against that of the heavy cow-bells of their Bulgarian counterparts from Shiroka Laka. The Macedonian bear-wards wallowed and bounced side by side with ancient Celts. The participants from Karlovo had brought along an army of volunteers and Borimechkata fired the cherry-tree canon on the town square in Pernik.

Among the bouncing and jingling in time multitude dressed in all sorts of furs, stood out the knights from Ireland, wearing iron helmets and crusaders' shields, profoundly engulfed in a life-and-death duel with heavy swords. And it is this memorable knights' spectacle, at first glance a far cry from the pantomime and mock duel of koukers from any village in the region of Yambol or Strandja Mountain, that suddenly melts the distance and brings together two diametrically opposed corners of Europe – the northwestern and the southeastern. In the climax of the duel one of the knights falls and “dies” only to come back to life and spring to his feet in the wake of a ritual gesture. And so did the prostrated mummer. Acted out in this way, the myth about the eternal life cycle has been known ever since the ancient Dionysian Games – the affirmation of immortality through constant renewal – “death” and “revival” (or birth) of nature. To secure this natural cycle, the evil should be driven away beforehand.

Driving away the evil and the triumph of good is not just an apt formulation, but it is also a permanent element of people's outlook on life, according to which the good eventually prevails. This universal idea opened and closed this year's International Festival of Masquerade Games in Pernik.