Well, it’s this time of the year again! It’s the celebrations of Kazanlak and the Rose Festival. This is the time when the city gets really different and even magical. This is the time when the whole city smells of roses and everyone is delighted. This is the time when the kids, the students and all the other people celebrate the beauty of our region.
If there’s only one thing that can be used to describe Kazanlak - this is the rose! And not the ordinary roses that just smell beautifully. This is the rose that has unique qualities and is oil bearing one, a rose that gives the rose oil to the most expensive brands and industries about fragrances and cosmetics. These roses have been planted in a lot of locations of the world, but it’s really due to geographical properties of our region that the most high quality rose oil comes from the heart of Bulgaria. For decades and even centuries, the center of Bulgaria has been known as the “Valley of roses” and our products have visited various fairs all over Europe and later - over the whole world.
The roses typically start flowering by the mid-May and that’s the time when the whole city starts preparing for the events that take place in the first week of June. This time of the year corresponds with the year that the younger students start their summer break and you can see the smiles of the kids all around the city. Of course there are a lot of foreign tourists too, although not so many during the last few years due to health restrictions. It’s great that this year people start traveling again, although the Japanese tourists which formed one of the biggest groups are still afraid to travel. At least there are a lot of Europeans around this year.
At the peak of our festival there is a special event that shows all the best from our lifestyle. This is the Festival procession where all the kids participating in various clubs, elderly people that take part in rose picking and all the art studios and theater studios walk along the Main Street of the city. You can see the Queen of Roses in front of this procession. This is a girl that’s picked in a beauty competition and she is the every years face of the festival. There is a special event about the most beautiful young girl where the participants are 7 years old or less.
This is the Queen of roses back in 2008
And this is the mini Miss Rose from the same year
I remember when I was young I was waiting the day of the procession with a lot of impatience and beautiful feelings. Being a participant in a folk dance ensemble for about 22 years, it was our showing to the whole city and the beauty of Bulgarian traditional dresses and clothes is magnificent.
Of course, only by seeing these photos you can barely feel all the spirit with all its strength, but try imagining all these happy people and all the beautiful rose aromas floating in the air. It’s just everyone celebrating the most beautiful time of the year.
Our city has strong connection with a lot of cities around the world, including France, England, Japan and even South Korea. I was in Seoul when a delegation of Kazanlak visited the capital of this Asian country and signed contracts for exchange of experience and cultural collaborations. And the main reason for the established link with Seoul is that they also have a Rose festival, about one week earlier than ours.
Our experience in Seoul back in 2017 was a great opportunity to see their way of holding such events and share cultural exchange. And although their roses are not oil bearing, it was another event showcasing the beauty of this majestic flower - the rose.
So what can I say in addition to that? I really cannot find the right words to express the atmosphere in the city of Kazanlak that’s in the air every year in the beginning of June. I’ll be happy if more people can come and experience her majesty-the Rose! And our oil bearing roses really have something special in their aroma!
Hope to see you around some day! 😉
All the photos in the post are taken by me, either with my DSLR camera or with my mobile phone.
Have a nice day!
What a nice festival! Aside from the beautiful roses, it must also smell so nice!
The traditional clothes look so nice too.
Are people still wearing it in everyday life?
I don’t think anyone wears this as an everyday outfit. There are a lot of new clothes though that use some details and artwork from the traditional costumes. I think a lot of people possess at least one traditional costume, though! Thanks for stopping by!
Oh I see, I thought the culture is still alive, I mean in everyday life. But since a lot of people has it, then it really lives on.
I like that new clothes have a bit of culture in them.
Our traditional wear is made of wool generally. That’s because back in the days the wool was the only source that could be used for textile production. And these clothes are a bit harsh and especially in the summer heat not the best thing that you can put on. 😁
This, together with the trends of the different times makes them more a special festive costumes rather than everyday wear.
I see! Wool and summer aren't really the best combination. Only good for cold days. 😅
Makes sense now! Thanks for clarifying and educating me about the traditional clothes. 😁
You’re always welcome!
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Nice post!
The roses really ignited my senses. It's like I could smell it, and I actually like rose oil for my face, so I kind of went into a trance while reading this. I bet the smell is beautiful indeed. Would be nice if you showcase a video of you doing folk dances one day. That would be interesting to see.
I've learned something new about your country, and you mentioned that Japanese (your regular patrons) didn't attend, and i can totally see this appealing to the Japanese/ The colour itself liiks so similar to the Cherry Blossoms and Sakura trees.
Cultural stuff really fascinates me:)))
Well, thanks again for the kind words! And thanks for stopping by. I’m happy when I see that our culture and folklore intrigues people from all over the world! I don’t dance anymore, since the children are taking almost all of my time, but you can enjoy some old videos 😁
This is a bit slower kind of a dance with me in the main male role. If you are interested m, there are other clips in that channel too, some of them are faster ones, some slower, from different districts of Bulgaria. You’re always welcome 😉
Wow! That was impressive. I noticed that there was a mixture of different beats; some fast, some slow. I found it soothing, and interesting to see you performing.😊 Cheers for sending this to me. I will make sure to check out some of the other videos. This is a whole new world for me.
Was there some Japanese speaking in this one? I thought I heard a little section with a Japanese lady.
Yup! The lady presents the dance, from the origin and district of Bulgaria where this dance comes from, to the whole story that it represents. I thought that I had wrote the story in the description of my video, but I guess I forgot… 😁
This is very mystical story. The young man is actually a sheep keeper. The sheep keepers used to go up in the mountains during the summers and they stayed there for at least a couple of months. The girl in this story is actually a mythical creature. These “girls” were thought to be unbelievable beautiful and they were stealing young man’s souls. They get the men fall in love with them and then get them go in forests together. Of course no one ever was able to see these men again. The actual sheep keeper has a secret protection tool in his pouch, which was a flower given by his mother. These mystical “girls” had a weak point. They really couldn’t stand being gifted flowers. So at the end of the story, as you can see I show the girls a flower and they all run away. 😁
I really tried to be short about this story. Hope that it doesn’t bother you! 😉
Haha! This story made me laugh out loud. You've written it and given me a vivid image. I'm more fascinated than I can tell you:))))
No, the length doesn't bother me at all.
It's a beautiful story. I hope your boys will grow up to appreciate this part of your culture and also find your participation fascinating.😊
😊The story is so beautiful, I'm blushing😊
In fact this performance is from Japan a long time ago! I can tell that most of my dance career and performances were held in Japan! 😁
If you have means to do this, you can really enjoy a trip to “The valley of the Roses” and experience our culture and festive spirit in person. Maybe next year? 😉
Hiya, @choogirl here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1576.
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😃 ooh, such a pretty and beauty filled time! such loveliness everywhere. u are so lucky to get to be there in person! Thanks for the showing..