Bulgarian Colours

[ImperiaBG]

Bulgarian Colours

Stefan Tenev

For those who know nothing about Bulgaria we shall only say that it is a country in the Balkans neighbouring Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Roumania and Turkey, and the Black Sea to the East.

Bulgarian history is full of ups and downs. It is important for us to know what we were in the past, but it is more important to know what we are today. And the present is more or less connected with the traditions of the past and remnants of cultural influences shaping the face of the Bulgarian nation through the centuries. Unlike other nations where folklore is a reflection of people's way of life, here on this tiny piece of land people's way of life is a reflection of folklore. The folktales and legends accompanying the everyday life of the Bulgarian are remnants from a past which goes beyond the boundaries of the written historical records. One of the numerous examples for this is the myth of Orpheus who descends the kingdom of the dead to look for love. The door to this creepy place is in the Rhodopa mountain, which is one of the most mystical mountains in Europe. The dwellers of this mountain from time immemorial are the wood-nymphs who sacrifice in the name of love. And that's what we are today, in rational times, always ready to do the craziest of all things in the name of love. A westerner would consider this insane, but that's what we are and that's how we live our lives - born under the southern skies. Our passions overwhelm our thoughts and this is how the magic of this country can be explained. The roots of our fears are not in death - we fear not to leave a trace behind after we are gone. In ancient times a Bulgarian Khan named Omourtag described these fears with the words: "No matter how good one's life is - he dies and another man is born. Let those born always remember the deeds of those dead".

The majority of Bulgarian family names are related to crafts and skills practiced by the patriarchs of the family trees. We pay a humble respect to the skills and talents of these people, because in our everyday life we overlook these abilities and we disregard the fact that sooner or later we judge people by their deeds. Another distinguishing feature determining the character of the Bulgarian and his country is the mysticism. It is deeply rooted in Bulgarian traditions. We adopted Christianity in 9th Century but heathen feasts were never forgotten. A striking example of this comes at the onset of spring. At this time of the year every Bulgarian, regardless of his religious beliefs, trims his coat with a "martenitza" - strings of white and red threads which one should wear till the storks come back from the South. But the mysticism is most strongly revealed in our music. People used to commune through music. We find in it encoded ancient messages from our ancestors and those unknown people that inhabited these lands before myths appeared.

Based on countless cultural artifacts that are found all over these lands we uncover megalith settlements and tombs, which according to contemporary scientific analyses date back to ancient times. Perpericon - the city of the Thracians turns out to be older than the Thracians themselves and artifacts found there indicate that the finds date back to an age when the Shumer civilization did not exist. This means that the Troy of Homer is younger than Perpericon.

We can now try to find the answers of the questions encoded in these impressive monuments of antiquity. The essential thing here is that there is continuity of the skills and talents passed on from generation to generation. The individual here is not anonymous. Each master proudly puts his name on his work. The artistic crafts which we will present to you on the pages of this site are part of the tradition. They are unique because they don't have copies. Each article is handmade and has artistic values and the maker has added his love and pain. You can tell that by the color patterns of rugs and carpets, the style of the earthenware, the bells of the blacksmith. Българ�ките цветове @ webcrafts