New Year

The holiday is very bright and colorful, thanks to customs and tradition. nThe holiday is very bright and colorful, thanks to the customs and traditions inherent in Bulgarians. It begins on the evening of January 31.

The richer the table, the more fertile the year will be. That's why the table has to break with food. In the middle of the table put ceremonial loaves decorated with images of vines and hives, a field and a garden. In the loaf necessarily put a coin. A special place is occupied by the banitsa (layer cake) with baked inside kizyl twigs, each of which symbolizes home and domestic animals, health and academic success.

Before dinner, the oldest member of the family churns the table with cumin, reads a prayer and breaks the loaf. Whoever gets a coin will be lucky all year round. And when in the end it comes to the banitsa, it becomes clear who got the house, stable, animals, and who is successful in school, in love or in the household.

On this night, many rituals are performed with wishes of well-being. But they are especially looking forward to the wishes of survakars - teenagers and young people who after midnight go from home to the house with kizyl branches in their hands. They pat their owners on the back with wishes of good health, longevity and all kinds of success in life. Kizil twig, or the so-called "survachka", is an obligatory affiliation of each of the survakars.

On the first of January, their namesakes are celebrated by Vasil, Vasilka, Veselin, Veselin. Therefore, the day in the people is better known as Vasilevday.