Everytime there is a holiday at the church, people make this dish made from oatmeal. It is then blessed by the priest and afterwards everyone eats from each others' dishes. It was traditionally made with oatmeal and walnuts but now people add sugar and chocolate.
Inside the church.
This is inside the Orthodox church in Saparevo. The style resembles the church at Rila Monastery. It is waaaay beyond the ability of my camera to capture.
Snejana in front of the church.
Me in front of the church.
The view from the village of the church.
People waiting around the fountain for the children to jump in after the cross.
The priest making his blessing.
Children getting ready to dive into the fountain to retrieve the cross that the priest is about to toss in. This would re-enacts the baptism of Jesus if he was Bulgarian, it was freezing and was 15 years old.
And if he fought all the other boys to get the cross...
Stupid kids getting me wet...
People lining up to get blessed by the priest. There is quite an art to the whole thing. After two years of practice I get it: drop the stotinki on the icon, kiss the ring, get sprinkled with water and kiss the cross.
Warming up with good food, good friends and good rakia.
The family of my collague and friend Snejana. Left to right: Rumen, Snejana, Yordan and me.
After too much good food, good friends and good rakia.
