Socialising with visitors from inside the taverns, getting together with family and associates, going on blind times, with a dating site membership: looking someone into the progressive Bulgaria is like any place else in the south-west, but there is however a residential area in which people meet prospective partners from inside the a much more traditional method.
Towards the outsider (and to of numerous Bulgarians), all of the Roma look the same. He is, although not, split up into numerous groups and this disagree inside religion, traditions and living. This new Kalaydzhii is Eastern Orthodox Christians and centuries was in fact itinerant tinkers. Its pastime try passing away away now, but they remain new community out of staying in small groups scattered to Bulgaria.
New Kalaydzhii always get married within clan, but even with the brand new advent of the online and cellular communications, the lifestyle is actually a hurdle to socialising which have kinsmen. So they arrange several annual gatherings – a time for you to meet up with relatives and you may family unit members, replace rumors, conduct business and you may, towards the youths, to locate somebody in daily life.
The new Kalaydzhii meet for pure the Todorovden, a moveable banquet toward very first Friday regarding Lent (this year it absolutely was with the 8 March), close Stara Zagora, and on new banquet of the Presumption, that is always for the 15 August. They see on Bachkovo Monastery.
Brand new Todorovden conference attracts alot more desire regarding the mass media as it is the time when of a lot Kalaydzhii families provide with each other the more youthful daughters in the hope to find them the right husband.
Lots of people are truth be told there just to socialise, plus the stand which have beer and you can kebapcheta is laden with men (the elderly nevertheless athletics ebony suits, white shirts, wide-brimmed experienced limits and you may grand moustaches) feasting that have family relations. Students run-around restaurants frozen dessert and people head toward horse fair that’s held just yards away from the bride fair.
Nothing from the gathering is also compare to the brand new girls, regardless of if. They don heavy eyeshadow in addition to their faces are coated light and you may purple. Some of the girls is shy, anyone else are more flirtatious. The greater number of rich laugh generally to display their gold pearly whites, a sign of prosperity. Blue-eyes and you will long hair are other “assets” sought after of the more youthful dudes in the fair.
Age future brides may vary. Regrettably, of many Kalaydzhii reduce its daughters out of school after they come to 15 (14 is the period of agree in Bulgaria), and start looking to get married all of them from. Within fair, chances is actually against girls inside their mid-20s. He or she is sensed too old and, since they are probably as divorced, they are certainly not appreciated since the virgins was.
This new statements and you can opinionsexpressed here are the ones of one’s article authors and you can don’t always mirror the viewpoint of one’s The united states to own Bulgaria Base and its own people
Anybody who the target bride-to-be, a step off their try their unique grandma. The old women can be because colourful as their granddaughters however in an even more traditional method – they however don the latest vibrant skirts and you can aprons of your own Kalaydzhii old-fashioned outfit, in addition to their a lot of time braids hang-down its backs. The new grandmas gravitate within girls, keeping track of the menfolk, prepared to fight any inappropriate actions, and to means somebody proving polite interest in the granddaughter.
It appears difficult to woo a girl such points, however the young guys do their very best. It circumambulate with the friends, defiantly munching sunflower seed.
This isn’t unusual to own a beneficial boy and you may an effective girl to have seen an effective break on every almost every other well before the new fair, nevertheless they can still sit-in and employ it because the specialized program so you’re able to announce the involvement.
This new varieties of the extremely-sexy clothes are occasionally borrowed throughout the stage clothes of your own most popular chalga divas
When a great boy and you will good girl prefer one another, the fresh new granny goes in action and you may instantly organises a conference between both family members. Reaching arrangement try a delicate activity and to cut face the newest negotiators desire get it done privately. Only if a contract try reached, is the involvement and share paid of the boy’s family members towards bride to be in public places launched, having tunes and you will dance throughout the the new couple.
The brand new exchange of money and you will haggling along side contribution is actually an excellent crucial a portion of the antique fair in fact it is much argued the year. If the savings try booming throughout the 2000s, an attractive virgin out-of a well-to-carry out household members may cost to 50,000 leva. Towards crisis prices took place, stabilising at around 3,000-5,000 leva, on the base price as little as 500 leva.
It’s called “to purchase a bride,” however, folk during the reasonable was eager to say that that isn’t a real change however, merely a heritage. No-one do get married their child to help you a person she disliked, regardless of the money on promote. Anyway, the folks say, the money covered brand new bride is then spent on this new relationships, which should be while the magnificent and ostentatious as members of the family normally manage.
Performs this way of seeking a spouse work in regards to protecting like and you may happiness regarding a long time? There is no code. During the reasonable one can possibly select cheerful women with small students who discover a spouse indeed there a year otherwise several ahead of, but the quantity of divorced girls “for sale” annually signifies that, like with more recent ways of interested in a spouse, anything may also go awry in the bride-to-be reasonable.
New fair itself is modifying, also. Not that way back this new girls carry out become dressed in new antique dresses and you will aprons that now merely they grannies wear. The online encourages interaction amongst the students and they have become to seem upon the whole fling as well as have into the requirement for virginity. Of numerous girls think of marrying outside of the Kalaydzhii.
Probably the precise location of the fair is evolving. For decades it had been kept into the a muddy and you may overlooked meadow only outside of the village of Mogila, several kms of Stara Zagora, but a year ago someone felt like they – in addition to their stunning daughters – got had an adequate amount of the newest mud while the disorder and also the music of your own horse-fair. During the 2013, the fresh fiance reasonable gone to live in a deserted block of land by new Stara Zagora rail station.
High Ray is some stuff, started by the Vagabond Journal, on the generous assistance of your America for Bulgaria Foundation, that aims to include details and records of urban centers, social agencies, situations, personalities and things regarding lifestyle which might be often difficult to know on outsider in the Balkans. The ultimate point is the preservation out-of Bulgaria’s social lifestyle – and additionally not limited to archaeological, social and you will ethnic diversity.
