The nestinar (fire-dancer) rituals, involving dances on embers, were practiced by the ancient Thracians. Today, they have been preserved in several Bulgarian villages in south-eastern Strandzha Mountain, as well as in the village of Stomanovo, the Rhodope Mountains, Southwestern Bulgaria. Such rituals are performed also in several villages in Northern Greece, where they have been carried over by migrants from Strandzha. While in the villages in Strandzha and in Northern Greece, Christian traditions have been overlaid on the ancient pagan ritual - the faith and devotion to Sv. Sv. Konstantin and Elena, for the inhabitants of Stomanovo (whose ritual I will describe in the present exposition), the ritual has not be Christianized - for them, it has remained a pagan Thracian Orphic tradition (well, the legendary Thracian singer and healer, Orpheus, creator of the "Orphism" belief system, lived in the Rhodope Mountains), an expression of the cult to the Great Goddess-Mother, her son Sabazios (Sun-Fire), Zagrey (the Bull God) and, as the people of Stomanovo described it themselves - a celebration of life, of fertility.
| Published in |
International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 5, Issue 5-1)
This article belongs to the Special Issue Music and Dance |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijla.s.2017050501.15 |
| Page(s) | 37-47 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Fire-Dancer, Dance on Embers, Pagan Feast, Sacrifice, Stomanovo
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APA Style
Krasimira Georgieva Fileva-Ruseva. (2017). Nestinar Feast in the Village of Stomanovo, the Smolyan Region. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 5(5-1), 37-47. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.s.2017050501.15
ACS Style
Krasimira Georgieva Fileva-Ruseva. Nestinar Feast in the Village of Stomanovo, the Smolyan Region. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2017, 5(5-1), 37-47. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.s.2017050501.15
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijla.s.2017050501.15,
author = {Krasimira Georgieva Fileva-Ruseva},
title = {Nestinar Feast in the Village of Stomanovo, the Smolyan Region},
journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
volume = {5},
number = {5-1},
pages = {37-47},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.s.2017050501.15},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.s.2017050501.15},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.s.2017050501.15},
abstract = {The nestinar (fire-dancer) rituals, involving dances on embers, were practiced by the ancient Thracians. Today, they have been preserved in several Bulgarian villages in south-eastern Strandzha Mountain, as well as in the village of Stomanovo, the Rhodope Mountains, Southwestern Bulgaria. Such rituals are performed also in several villages in Northern Greece, where they have been carried over by migrants from Strandzha. While in the villages in Strandzha and in Northern Greece, Christian traditions have been overlaid on the ancient pagan ritual - the faith and devotion to Sv. Sv. Konstantin and Elena, for the inhabitants of Stomanovo (whose ritual I will describe in the present exposition), the ritual has not be Christianized - for them, it has remained a pagan Thracian Orphic tradition (well, the legendary Thracian singer and healer, Orpheus, creator of the "Orphism" belief system, lived in the Rhodope Mountains), an expression of the cult to the Great Goddess-Mother, her son Sabazios (Sun-Fire), Zagrey (the Bull God) and, as the people of Stomanovo described it themselves - a celebration of life, of fertility.},
year = {2017}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Nestinar Feast in the Village of Stomanovo, the Smolyan Region AU - Krasimira Georgieva Fileva-Ruseva Y1 - 2017/08/31 PY - 2017 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.s.2017050501.15 DO - 10.11648/j.ijla.s.2017050501.15 T2 - International Journal of Literature and Arts JF - International Journal of Literature and Arts JO - International Journal of Literature and Arts SP - 37 EP - 47 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2331-057X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.s.2017050501.15 AB - The nestinar (fire-dancer) rituals, involving dances on embers, were practiced by the ancient Thracians. Today, they have been preserved in several Bulgarian villages in south-eastern Strandzha Mountain, as well as in the village of Stomanovo, the Rhodope Mountains, Southwestern Bulgaria. Such rituals are performed also in several villages in Northern Greece, where they have been carried over by migrants from Strandzha. While in the villages in Strandzha and in Northern Greece, Christian traditions have been overlaid on the ancient pagan ritual - the faith and devotion to Sv. Sv. Konstantin and Elena, for the inhabitants of Stomanovo (whose ritual I will describe in the present exposition), the ritual has not be Christianized - for them, it has remained a pagan Thracian Orphic tradition (well, the legendary Thracian singer and healer, Orpheus, creator of the "Orphism" belief system, lived in the Rhodope Mountains), an expression of the cult to the Great Goddess-Mother, her son Sabazios (Sun-Fire), Zagrey (the Bull God) and, as the people of Stomanovo described it themselves - a celebration of life, of fertility. VL - 5 IS - 5-1 ER -
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