#bulgaria
Men dressed as babugeri mummers for the pagan inspired annual mummer carnival in Bansko, Bulgaria.
Photo by Charles Freger from his Wilder Mannseries.
FromBulgaria Travel:
The custom of “Mummers” (“Kukeri”) in the Bulgarian lands was originated thousands of years ago. It was celebrated by the Thracian tribes when meeting their new year and the beginning of the new planting season associated with tilling the fields. With their rituals the Kukeri dance the winter away and welcome the coming summer fertility. In different parts of Bulgaria the mummers go out at different times - right after the New Year or in March after Shrove (these celebrations correspond to the Western Christian Carnival). Mummers have different names: babugeri, pesyatsi, bear-leaders, elders, Kukove. They dress in leather or with a mixture of male and female clothes and put on scary masks, hang bells and carry swords or sticks to frighten away the frigid and fruitless winter. Then they dance in the streets to scare the evil forces and to banish the cold and perform rituals for fertility and health such as plowing, sowing, and others.
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