Bulgarian Christmas and a METER of snow

I appologize for the delay in writing about the holidays, but I will do my best to make it worth the wait. I spent Christmas with my host family in Southwest Bulgaria, along with another Peace Corps Volunteer (Magi, second from left)who lived with them (previous to me). My host family really went out of their way to make us feel welcome, and kept referring to us as "the kids." Here we are on Christmas Eve: Eli is between Magi and I, Bobi is on the far left and in the background is Stoil senior with the ever important wine pitcher.

And next, we have the men of the family: Stoil senior, Stoilcho the teenager and Vasco. Bulgarians tend to skip generations with family names, so there is a distinct possibility that if Soilcho ever has a son, he will be called Vasco as well. Stoil senior still has his wine pitcher; as you can see, he takes his glass filling duty very seriously.


One of the most touching moments for me was Christmas morning in church. It is tradition in the Bulgarian Orthodox church to write the names of your family on a small piece of paper,

and then the priest prays for everyone by name later during the service. Our host grandma (Baba Bobi) included us on the list too, right after the grandkids. Being as this was my first holiday season spent away from my biological family, it felt good to be part of an adopted one.

In Orthodox tradition, Christmas Eve is considered a fast day, which means that no animal products or any kind are eaten. So, Christmas Eve dinner is completely vegan, much to the delight of some of my vegetarian friends. Also Christmas Eve dinner in always eaten on the floor, which must have some sort of symbolic or theological meaning, but I don't know enough to conjecture about it here. As you can see it wasn't really a fast. We had mashed beans, peppers and cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, sweet and savory banitsa (the national pastry) and ceremonial bread with little slips of paper baked into it with "luck" written on them. It was almost like a Bulgarian fortune cookie (not the flavor, the luck).



I also got to visit with the goats, who some of my loyal readers will remember that I befriended. It turns out that my host family has a sheep now too. The goats are named Maya and Galla. The sheep, rather ominously, is not named. Magi, Stoil senior and I took them out for a lovely stroll through the edge of the forest.

After Christmas, I came back to Svishtov for New Year's . Bulgarians do not stop with a simple Happy New Year. They continue on to wish you health, wealth, luck, happiness and a long life. But that is not the big story. On New Year's Day in the evening it started snowing, and really has not let up much since! Today it accumulated to over a meter. The roads out of town are closed, and the sidewalks are just piled high with snow. Many regions of Bulgaria are in offical states of emergency. My power is on and everything, so I am quite comfortable, but I have heard of some power outtages in the villages. We're expecting to be shut in for several days, so I have been buying a little extra food.

Here is a row of parked cars in front of my block.






















Here are people walking down the middle of what normally is a very busy street.















Here is the walking park in the center. It is a nice place to walk, but not an absolutely essential walking corridor. I think it is pretty awesome that someone cleared a path through it for the sole purpose of enjoying the snow.