Култура

Long before it became a day of maternity care, January 21 was Babinden in the Chepinska trough. The tradition of the great folk holiday is preserved to this day thanks to people like Maria Vlahova - the long-time leader of the ensemble for authentic folklore at the community center in the district. Kamenitza. We sought her to remind us of the adetes of Babinden, of which she sweet-talked. You get up early in the morning to water the grandmother before sunrise and the child is lucky. It is believed that whoever mother formerly watered, "picks up" luck and for the next remains less. The mother waters all the grandmothers and great-grandmothers of the newborn. Grandmothers are given a shirt and a wool scarf to go to church with. Grandparents are also donated - with a towel and patterned socks. Grandmothers, in turn, endow the child with socks and a dress.
On the morning of Babinden, good brandy is drunk and a patcha is eaten for appetizers according to a traditional recipe. Once upon a time, the grandmothers bathed them, but first they ask the grandfather if he will "buy back" the bathing with a barrel of wine, damask brandy, shoulder, lukanka, blood sausage. If the grandfather is teaming her up, the grandmother does not bathe her, but just for luck they put her on a wagon with patterned rugs and "draught" her in the cold river. At lunch in the houses with a "grandmother" are arranged many dishes, and years ago in every such home they invited music. From each house, a horo is made, they look at where the biggest music is and are the "smoothest" brides, Maria Vlahova recalls and the memory brings her back to how she used to tighten Babinden for her son with the biggest music and rich sophra - the holiday was so important that the family council decided the calf to be slaughtered for Babinden, not for the New Year.
Every year on Babinden the composition for authentic folklore from Kamenitsa presents the whole custom of "Pouring". An integral part of the custom are the blessings that Aunt Maria - grandmother of 4 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren, orders: "Alive and healthy to be - to grow old, to turn white like Stara Planina! Dry to catch - raw to get! To till to wed, to wait for sons like rabadji wedges; daughters like shop peppers; grandchildren like cutouts; great-grandchildren like vlach dogs by the dairy! Be blessed by God: whoever has not, may a year or two pass, may God give him two! And may the times be peaceful, may our children grow up happy!"
This blessing is nice - may it come true for all the grandmothers and their families! And to the whole ensemble for authentic folklore from Kamenitsa, led by Maria Vlahova wish to keep and enrich the most valuable of the local folk tradition and wisdom.
Elena Baeva