Last week we traveled back to Kyustendil, our old training site, to celebrate Christmas with Wil's host family. Much to the disbelief of practically everyone, we love Kyustendil. Maybe it's the people, or the mountain, or the pace of life, but we always feel happy to go back. Christmas is a big family holiday in Bulgaria with lots of food and steeped in tradition. The main celebration takes place on Christmas Eve or Budni Vecher. It is always a vegetarian (and sometimes even vegan) affair. Some people even spend the weeks leading up to Christmas abstaining from meat and dairy products, but our families just observe this tradition on Christmas Eve. There always has to be an odd number of dishes served as even numbers are often reserved for bad luck and the dead. We arrived on Christmas Eve from Sofia and began by helping with preparations for dinner. Blaga is a good and patient cook and let me help so that I could learn how to make some of the dishes back in Bourgas. By the end of
the day we had cooked many dishes made from peppers, rice, beans, and lots of sunflower oil. After all the food is set out on the table the oldest male in the house breaks the pogatchka or round bread. Inside this bread a coin is hidden and it is said that the person who finds it will have luck in the coming year. Bits of bread are broken off beginning with a piece for God, then the house, and then each person in descending age order. This year Pepe (Wil's host dad) found the money. After this, dinner officially begins and continues for at least another couple of hours. There is also a tradition that involves breaking a walnut. Each person cracks one open and those that have a full healthy nut will have good luck and those without a nut or whose nut has withered will of course have bad luck.
One of the neatest things about eating food in smaller villages and towns in Bulgaria is that many times food has been grown, canned, or hunted by the families themselves. We enjoyed homemade wine and rakia, salads that had been canned in the fall and Wil even got to help make homemade sausage from wild pig that Pepe had hunted. At the end of the night the food is left on the table for deceased relatives and spirits to come and feast. Christmas day is spent relaxing and eating. Unlike in the U.S. all the stores are open and it is pretty common to go have coffee with friends and family. On Christmas night we went na gosti to the house of Wil's host brother's wife's parents. Bulgarians celebrate their name days (the day of the saint whose name is closest to theirs) and the 25th is a name day for anyone with a name derived from Christ. As we walked around town on Christmas Day we got a present I haven't had since I was a kid. We had a white Christmas.
Last week we traveled back to Kyustendil, our old training site, to celebrate Christmas with Wil's host family. Much to the disbelief of practically everyone, we love Kyustendil. Maybe it's the people, or the mountain, or the pace of life, but we always feel happy to go back. Christmas is a big family holiday in Bulgaria with lots of food and steeped in tradition. The main celebration takes place on Christmas Eve or Budni Vecher. It is always a vegetarian (and sometimes even vegan) affair. Some people even spend the weeks leading up to Christmas abstaining from meat and dairy products, but our families just observe this tradition on Christmas Eve. There always has to be an odd number of dishes served as even numbers are often reserved for bad luck and the dead. We arrived on Christmas Eve from Sofia and began by helping with preparations for dinner. Blaga is a good and patient cook and let me help so that I could learn how to make some of the dishes back in Bourgas. By the end of 
the day we had cooked many dishes made from peppers, rice, beans, and lots of sunflower oil. After all the food is set out on the table the oldest male in the house breaks the pogatchka or round bread. Inside this bread a coin is hidden and it is said that the person who finds it will have luck in the coming year. Bits of bread are broken off beginning with a piece for God, then the house, and then each person in descending age order. This year Pepe (Wil's host dad) found the money. After this, dinner officially begins and continues for at least another couple of hours. There is also a tradition that involves breaking a walnut. Each person cracks one open and those that have a full healthy nut will have good luck and those without a nut or whose nut has withered will of course have bad luck. 
One of the neatest things about eating food in smaller villages and towns in Bulgaria is that many times food has been grown, canned, or hunted by the families themselves. We enjoyed homemade wine and rakia, salads that had been canned in the fall and Wil even got to help make homemade sausage from wild pig that Pepe had hunted. At the end of the night the food is left on the table for deceased relatives and spirits to come and feast. Christmas day is spent relaxing and eating. Unlike in the U.S. all the stores are open and it is pretty common to go have coffee with friends and family. On Christmas night we went na gosti to the house of Wil's host brother's wife's parents. Bulgarians celebrate their name days (the day of the saint whose name is closest to theirs) and the 25th is a name day for anyone with a name derived from Christ. As we walked around town on Christmas Day we got a present I haven't had since I was a kid. We had a white Christmas.
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