This year's Kukeri celebration turned out even better than last year's. Our mummers' group increased in numbers and gained experience in chasing away all things bad. We had twice as many guests, and we danced thrice as much. We wonder what it is going to be like next year.

We squeezed in a Dialect Evening, during which we spoke in and compared various Bulgarian dialects. The most incomprehensible ones proved to be the one from my father's village of Dobrich, near Haskovo, and the Shoppean dialect, proudly demonstrated by Mr. Todor Panchev from the town of Elin Pelin (you'll see Todor straining his neck towards the mike in one of the photos below). There were no competitors from such weird-speaking regions like the Strandja and the Rhodopes mountains. Let's hope those lands' sons stand up for their mothers' ways of speaking next year.

The pinnacle of the non-kukeri part of this festive event was the performance of the specially invited Bulgarian folkdance group from Montreal Bulgari. It gave us all a tremendous amount of pleasure. We are very happy to have started such a friendship and cooperation, and we can't wait to return the visit.

Author: Igranka.com
English translation: Vera Genova