Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Five years ago the ancient pagan ritual Surova entered UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list

Photo: BGNES, archive

On this day in 2015, the Surova folk feast from the region of Pernik was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the UNESCO website writes.

Surova is a ritual banishing evil forces to cleanse humans for a new life. The core of the celebration is a popular masquerade ritual performed in villages throughout the region. It takes place in January when colourful survakari masquerade groups pass through the streets to the sound of bells and bagpipes to celebrate creative human energy and the faith that the new year will be more bountiful and healthy.  



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Burgas

The Bulgarian cities bidding for European Capital of Culture 2032

In 2032, Bulgaria and Denmark will select their cities for the title of European Capital of Culture. The procedure will open in 2026 when the two countries will officially invite their cities to prepare their candidacies. The candidates must draw up..

updated on 1/31/25 12:02 PM

Circle of Life: How the Eastern Rhodopes became a model of a restored ecosystem

The Eastern Rhodopes are one of the few places in Europe where the balance of nature has been restored almost to the state it was in two centuries ago. Here, ecosystems function naturally. In other words, animals and plants coexist in harmony without..

published on 1/30/25 1:13 PM

Bulgaria and Vincent Dupuy

"I started working as a teacher in France, but I was bored. I started looking around – where could I go as a history and geography teacher? A vacancy appeared in Bulgaria." And so in 2007, Vincent Dupuy, a recent university graduate, set off for a..

published on 1/29/25 1:30 PM