Панагирите в село Българи
The Fairs (Panagirs) in the Village Bulgari

Summary/Abstract: The summer fairs (panagirs) in the village of Bulgari (held on the days of St. Constantine and Helen, St. Trinity, St. Elijah, St. Virgin Mary) used to be important festivities for the whole village. Nowadays only the fair on the St. Constantine and Helen keeps the memories about the nature and rituals connected with this tradition. The dance of nestinars (fire-walkers) has become а might and а synonym for the panagir. The fairs are related to vows – the most unflagging and preserved today rituals. Our statement that the fairs in the village Bulgari in the past and now come to be а projection of the same “Vow Circle” is based on the functional-typological analogies between the two phenomena. In the same tradition, in the fields, in the fragmented combination between music and myth one is not surprised to find а similarity (relationship) between а panagir, а vow and the myth about Dionysius Zagreus. It is worth pointing only to those preserved parallel relicts which are mentioned together, i.e. cognate relicts, as well as to the suggestion of а common mythical origin of the phenomena. Even today at the fair of St. Constantine and Helen, each march and reaching а certain place (with the specific rituals in its environment) are parted by the sounds of nestinar (panagir’s) tunes. Their still living affiliation to the panagir is the clan’s memory of the integrity between tune and action, originating from old ritual traditions.

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