Годечката джамала
The Godech Masquerade

Summary/Abstract: The study presents the material of the koukeri masked dancers festivals, collected by the author personally in January 1994. Godech is a town where the pagan masquerades have been preserved. The author describes in detail the dressing up the entire procedure of the dzhamalars as the koukeri masked dancers are called there. A quick inquiry taken from the viewers comes to show that the koukeri masked dances have now lost their original meaning and are no longer construed as chasing away of evil spirits and expressing wishes for fertility, but are regarded as a common open-air theatre performance. The inquiry yields something else, too: people from the region of Godech want that the tradition be perpetuated and be handed down from generation to generation as an expression of the originality of the national spirit. An interview has been taken from a local teacher now in retirement to further corroborate the facts presented. He has direct observations of many years, and moreover, he remembers what his grandfather had told him on that matter.

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