ПРОГРАМИ
en de ru fr es sr gr al tr ro
Podcast in English
Share
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Bulgarians in Bessarabia keep the tradition of a special game with Easter eggs

Photo: Private archive

Games where the main character is the egg are probably not very many. In Germany, for example, on Easter, families visit the church, and then children look for eggs in the garden, hidden by the Easter bunny - a symbol of fertility. If we look for information, however, we will find a less popular tradition preserved in the territory of today's Bessarabia, where many ethnic Bulgarians live.

"All the eggs are placed on a line - one by each participant. Then, with a tennis ball, the participant tries to push an egg out of the frame in which they are enclosed. Each egg that comes out is a trophy for the one who hit it. The game took place in the street, and a bed of sand and earth was made for each egg, in which it could stand straight," the ethnographer from Moldova Galina Manolova told us.


"When I wrote about this game, I was sure that it still existed, and what was my surprise when it turned out that the game was completely lost! I found that it was known not only in my native village of Kairaklia, but also in the surrounding, mainly Bulgarian villages", clarifies Galina Manolova. "I was looking for materials to see if this is not a Moldovan, Ukrainian or Russian loanword, but this game is observed only among Bulgarians."

On Easter with the Bulgarians in Moldova, we have an interesting publication from the collection of Radio Bulgaria, in which you can hear the researcher's story about the almost forgotten Easter game of our compatriots in Bessarabia and her wish for more peace and light in our souls:

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.
Radio Bulgaria Life    Bessarabia Easter Easter eggs Moldova

More from category

Sebastian Burduja

Balkan Developments

Romania becomes the largest natural gas producer in the EU Romania was the largest natural gas producer in the EU in 2024 and in 2027 the country will double its production thanks to the Neptun Deep project. This was..

published on 1/10/25 3:55 PM

Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha: Young and studious Bulgarians are the country's wealth today 

The year 2024 was marked by political instability and confrontation - not so much over ideas for solving Bulgaria's long-standing governance puzzle, but rather over personal egos and individual agendas. This turbulent year shaped the political landscape,..

published on 1/8/25 12:20 PM

The clock of the Stara Zagora Puppet Theatre is one of the emblems of the city

The clock on the facade of the State Puppet Theatre in Stara Zagora has long been a symbol of the city. It was set in motion in 1977 and is unique on the Balkan Peninsula. The theatre recently shared details about the clock on its Facebook page after..

published on 1/8/25 7:40 AM

WEATHER
Pick city: Sofía
Partly Cloudy
Min: 3 | Max: 15
Mostly Cloudy
Min: 7 | Max: 15
Cloudy
Min: 7 | Max: 14
Partly Cloudy
Min: -1 | Max: 16
Partly cloudy, chance of rain
Min: 4 | Max: 15
Mostly Cloudy
Min: 3 | Max: 16
Mostly Cloudy
Min: 2 | Max: 15
Cloudy
Min: 2 | Max: 11
Mostly Cloudy
Min: 3 | Max: 15
Partly cloudy, chance of rain
Min: -1 | Max: 14
Mostly Cloudy
Min: 3 | Max: 16
Partly cloudy, chance of rain
Min: 2 | Max: 15
Mostly Cloudy
Min: 0 | Max: 14
Partly cloudy, chance of rain
Min: 0 | Max: 12
Partly Cloudy
Min: 2 | Max: 14
Mostly Cloudy
Min: -2 | Max: 15
Cloudy
Min: 6 | Max: 14
Mostly Cloudy
Min: 6 | Max: 12
Cloudy
Min: 6 | Max: 11
Mostly Cloudy
Min: 6 | Max: 15
Partly Cloudy
Min: -1 | Max: 11
Partly Cloudy
Min: 0 | Max: 12
Mostly Cloudy
Min: 1 | Max: 16
Cloudy
Min: 5 | Max: 14
Cloudy
Min: 3 | Max: 14
Cloudy
Min: 5 | Max: 14
Cloudy
Min: 5 | Max: 14
BULGARIA IN PICTURES
Which world-famous Bulgarian artist designed QSL cards for Radio Bulgaria?
Yasen Gyuzelev
Theodore Ushev
Christo Javacheff - Christo
Ilia Peikov
Lika Yanko

BULGARIANS ABROAD

Български English Русский Deutsch Српски Français Ελληνικά Español Shqip Türkçe Română
MOST VIEWED

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..

published on 1/29/25 1:30 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...

published on 1/30/25 1:13 PM

english@bnr.bg

+359 2 9336 661

Общи условия за използване на сайта | Политика за поверителност | Политика за "бисквитки"