DANCING ON FIRE
i (Owh Correspondeut— By Air Mail.)
Bulgarian Women in Sacred Rites
LONDON, Jtine 15. Pious folk ffom every part of Bulgaria have ' just been flocking to the tiny mountain village of Vulgari, • to see the amazih'g "y^arly ceremony of the sacred fire-dance. " ' " * ? Tho dancers, members of the centu-ries-old sect of the Neetlnarki, are wfinkled old women, and the ceremony is held on the feast-day of Saints Constantine and Helena. Early in the morning the village pipers begin to play a strange melody to the aec'ompaniment of the '"holy drum," which is only heard on this oue day in the year. . As the sun begins to decline, the iuhabitants dig a great hole in the village square, and fill it with blazing logs, which are allowed ta burn to red-hot embers. Then, after a service in the village church, the Nestinarki are conducted, with the images of the eainfes earried behind them, to the glowing pit. One after another the old women leap barefooted on the embers and dance wildly for three minutes — yet though their faces are contracted with pain their feet show not the slightest trace of buroing when the ceremony is over.
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Bibliographic details
Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 146, 8 July 1937, Page 6
Word Count
197DANCING ON FIRE Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 146, 8 July 1937, Page 6
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