Christmas in Bulgaria
Although the Communist Regime outlawed the Christmas holiday for 45 years in Bulgaria, Christmas has always found a place in the hearts of the Bulgarian people. For centuries since the Bulgarian national conversion to Christianity in 864 AD Christmas has been a central Bulgarian holiday. As Orthodox Christianity is still the main religion in Bulgaria for many, Christmas has a Christian Orthodox accent including the Orthodox traditions and customs. Yet, the Bulgarian Protestant community has supported for the preservation of this Christian holiday especially during the time of the Communist persecution.
According to the Orthodox customs the Christmas holiday begins 40 days before the Christmas Eve. This time is called “Great Fasting” and is a time when no meat is eaten.
Christmas Eve is the end of the Great Fasting. On Christmas Eve the family has dinner together. The hostess prepares nine meals without meat. Some of them are: beans, vine or cabbage sarmi (vine or cabbage leaves stuffed with rice), stuffed peppers, pickles, walnuts, apples, honey, ushaf (a traditional Bulgarian meal prepared by boiling dried fruits), and round bread.
After the fast is over meat is served. Usually most of the Bulgarians eat pork chops, kebab and sausages. The kebab is prepared by cutting in small pieces the pork stewed with onions and pepper. The sausages are made of homemade minced pork.
Central for the Bulgarian Christmas dinner is the bantiza, which is a baked strudel like pastry filled with an egg and cheese mixture. A coin is put in it for luck. The oldest man in the family breaks the banitza and gives a piece everyone. The one who gets the piece with the coin in it is believed to be very wealthy in the New Year. The Christmas Eve table is not cleared until the following morning, a typical tradition to insure that there will be plenty of food in the coming year.
“Surovaknitza” is another typical Bulgarian Christmas tradition. The surovaknitza is made of a cornel stick/cudgel. It is pruned so that several branches remain on the two sides of it all along its length. Then the branches that are one against another (at the same level of the stick) are tied so that they form something like a round circle one half of which is at the left side and the other half is at the right side of the stick. Three or four such circles are formed on the length of the stick as the upper circles will be smaller and the lower circles will be wider. The circles and the stick are wrapped with woolen and cotton yarn (usually white and red). It is decorated with little balls made out of cotton, strings of popcorn, raisins, prunes, dried apple slices, dried peppers, etc.
The ready surovaknitza is used by the children to pat on the backs of their parents, grandparents, extended family, friends and any visitors in the house after the Christmas Eve. While patting, the kids say a wish for health, wealth, happiness and all the best to one patted. The patted person pays a dollar or five dollars to the child in order to receive a blessing in the New Year.
Around Christmas many Bulgarians celebrate their name days. It is almost like a birthday, except instead of a date the parson’s name is celebrated. This is usually done on the day of a particular saint after whom the person is named. For example:
December 4 – St. Barbara’s Day
December 6 – St. Nicholas’ Day (Nikoulden)
December 20 – St. Ignatius’ Day (Ignazhden)
January 1 – Vassil’s Day
January 6 – Epiphany – St. Jordan’s Day
January 7 – St. John’s Day (Ivanovden)
Another Christmas ritual is called Koleduvane. All the participants in it are men – bachelors, fiances and young men who have just married. This ritual group has its own name that differs from place to place and is connected with the region of the country – koledari, kolednitzi, koledare, etc. All the men choose their leader at St. Ignatius’ Day – he is called stanenik, usually an older man. The group has 10-15 persons. Each group includes younger boys (they are called cats), who walk around the houses and tell the hosts that the koledari are coming. The koledari wear old Bulgarian traditional clothing. They go round the houses in the village or in the town from midnight till dawn. On their way, in front of the gate and in the house they sing specific ritual songs. The songs differ from one another according to the place they are sung and the person they are dedicated to. As a whole, these songs are ritual wishes for happiness in the family and rich crop in the farm. The first song usually begins with this verse:
“Get up, get up dear host!
We are singing for you!
We have come to visit you,
We are good guests for you, koledari!”
The leader of the group carries in his hands the ring – shaped bun, which is a gift from the host. After the songs have been sung he tells a Christmas blessing:
“Let God grant you health
We have brought in your house revelry! “
Besides the ring–shaped bun the hosts present the koledari with money, meat, flour, wine, beans and bacon. This ritual ends up with a common feast. Every family has a Christmas tree in their home; some are decorated with electric lights, some with candles. The tree is usually decorated with ornaments purchased in the store, cotton balls to imitate snow and a star on the top. Gifts are placed under the tree.
Mission Maranatha in Revival
Mission Maranatha, a Bulgarian local mission’s branch of Cup & Cross Ministries continues services at the Black Sea. Close to 100 revival services have been held during the past four months by various team members in the Black Sea towns of Ahtopol, Pomorie, Sinemoretz, Varna, Bourgas, Chernomoretz, Sinemoretz and Varvara. The mission’s attempt to establish a ground for future work in towns with no evangelical church presence has been rendered successful and we trust that the initiated strategy will be brought to completion in 2007.
Over 3,300 Receive Bible Verse
Over 3,300 Bulgarians worldwide receive daily a Bible verse directly to their cell phones from the Christian mega portal www.bibliata.com. Similar active applications include the English website “Ecclesia”, the Australian Bible Society and the American mFaith and OSministry. The service offered by www.bibliata.com was initiated in 2002 and it has remained free of charge for all subscribes since then. The service is offered via the major Bulgarian GSM operators MTel and GloBul. Registration is done online at: sms.bibliata.com. There is also an option to receive the verse via email.
Services in South Carolina
We are excited to be able to hold services in the Carolinas again. While through its history our ministry has been closely connected to churches in this region of the country, we have been naturally unable to preach there during our term of ministry in Eastern Europe. The services in Anderson, La France and Pendleton reconnected us with our past history in ministry and reinforced our vision for the future. We are thankful for the given opportunity and the multitude of friends we were able to see once again.
Chaplain Dees Visits Bulgaria
The Director of Ministry to the Military, General Bob Dees and his team visited Bulgaria in November upon the invitation of the Bulgarian Ministry to Military and the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association. His visit included several key meetings among which were:
1. Lecturing at the Bulgarian Military Academy and meeting with the director of the academy, General-Major Manev.
2. Meeting with the Bulgarian Union of Retired Officers represented by director General-Lieutenant Topalov.
3. Meetings with Defense Ministry officials.
As a member of NATO, Bulgaria is already working on a strategy for implementing military chaplains. With Bulgaria’s acceptance in the European Union next month, this dream is getting close to its realization. With strategically offered chaplaincy training courses and non-government chaplaincy organizations, Bulgarian evangelicals remain the vanguard responding to the idea for military chaplaincy.
Ministering in Chicago
In November we were able to minister at the Bulgarian Church in Chicago. The Bulgarian Evangelical congregation there celebrated its 10-year anniversary this year since its registration as a Church of God congregation. The church is also the first Bulgarian congregation established and legally registered outside of Bulgaria since the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The Bulgarian Evangelical Church of God in Chicago has accomplished a lot in the past few years, making a stand for the faith. The congregation has experienced continuous growth and the pastor shared with us their long-term plans for purchasing additional building space in the future. We spoke about the problems of the congregation as a Bulgarian subculture and were able to share with the leadership some key ideas from our research among the Bulgarian Diaspora in North America and to provide structural solution to some of the problems they are experiencing in the ministry.
Bulgarian Protestant Heritage
After presenting at the ETS annual meeting in Washington, D.C. our ministry agenda took us to the great state of Illinois. We were due for a brief research visit at the library of the University of Illinois in Champaign. As one of the top public libraries in the United States, it has archived a large number of volumes related to the Bulgarian history. Once a visitor is allowed to “the stacks,” hundreds of thousand of volumes in the ten story building begin to tell the story of the centuries.
Of a greater interest among them were publications related to Bulgaria’s national renaissance of the 1800s. Many of the items in the library’s catalogue are extremely difficult to find in “the stacks.” Some of them are misfiled; others have not been checked out for decades and have not even received a barcode according to the new standard. Some, many of which in leaf format, have been purchased by the university’s Slavic Research Center and stored with virtually no catalog information.
Some Bulgarian Protestant publications like the Luboslovie journal (1844) and Zornitza (both newspaper and magazine editions) are carefully stored there. Along with them there are various protocols and papers related to the missionary school in Samokov, partial editions of prof. Shishamnov’s studies, 1940s audits of the American College in Sofia, a 1897 Bulgarian almanac, several copies of the almanac published by Bulgarian immigrants in the United States in the 1920s, the Robert’s College Herald, books about and by Riggs, Haskell, Fotinov, McGeehan and much more.
We were able to sort through the items described in the catalogue, check out and scan as many as possible during our short visit. We are hoping to be able to publish them very soon at the Protestantstvoto.com website which we have created as a center for research of Bulgarian Protestant heritage.
Give Thanks
Everything you do or say, then, should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks to Him through God the Father (Colossians 3:17)
The Scripture advises us to give thanks to God at all times and on all occasions. It also gives thanks itself: Genesis gives thanks for the creation. Exodus gives thanks for the deliverance. Leviticus gives thanks from generation to generation. Numbers gives thanks for each generation. Deuteronomy gives thanks for the law. Joshua gives thanks for the Promised Land. The historical books give thanks because His mercy endures forever. Psalms give thanks with a song. Proverbs give thanks with a word of wisdom. The Prophets give thanks for the coming Messiah.
The Gospels give thanks for the Messiah who has come to the world. Acts give thanks for the Holy Ghost. The Epistles give thanks for we were delivered from sin, saved, sanctified, baptized, adopted to the family of God, healed, restored, blessed and wonderfully placed on the firm rock who is Christ Jesus. Revelation gives thanks for He is coming again to deliver us from the trials and tribulations of the present world and to bring us to the abundant life in the Heavenly City.
We are thankful to God who is our hope for both today and for eternity. Happy Thanksgiving, from all of us at Cup & Cross Ministries.
Cup & Cross Presenting at ETS
November 20, 2006 by Cup&Cross
Filed under Publication
Cup & Cross Ministries presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Washington, D.C.. The research dealt with a long-term project of ours, namely “The Story of the Bulgarian Bible.” The complete paper is available online here. You can view the complete PowerPoint presentation here.
Revival Campaign in the United States
What a great and exciting month of ministry. We held 33 services in 24 days in Bulgaria during the month of October as part of our 2006 Revival Harvest Campaign. Many were touched and transformed by the power of God while ministering during two revivals and a number of regional meetings and youth rallies in major Bulgarian cities. On Monday night during our last revival before our departure which was held in the oldest Bulgarian Pentecostal church in the Black Sea port city of Bourgas, a lady received her miracle and was healed from cancer. The case was later confirmed by her doctor.
We are happy to announce the continuation of Revival Harvest Campaign 2006 in the United States, as we have already scheduled ministry appointments in Washington D.C., Chicago, throughout South Carolina and Florida
