site.btaCooking White Halva for Bulgarian Carnival in Borovo Nominated for Living Human Treasures

Cooking white halva for the Bulgarian carnival of Sirni Zagovezni, which is the Sunday before Lent, is the nomination from Ruse Region for the Living Human Treasures - Bulgaria programme in 2024. The nomination was made by the Iskra 1898 Community Centre in the town of Borovo.

"The recipe for cooking halva has remained unchanged since the beginning of last century," the secretary of the Borovo community centre, Atanaska Ivanova, told BTA.

Borovo is made up of two villages, Gorazd and Gorna Manastiritsa and that Halva was mainly made in Gorazd.

"When we started the research, we talked to 92-year-old Penka Velikova, who told us how long halva has been made. I remember that when I came to Borovo, in the spring of 1986, my mother-in-law invited a halva master, who was in charge of the preparation process, while we helped. This was the first halva making I participated in," Ivanova recalled.

Nowadays only a few families in Borovo cook halva for Sirni Zagovezni, said Penka Velikova. " The preparation and cooking takes about four hours and is very time-consuming," Ivanova added.

The recipe for preparing one dose of white halva is a handful of dried root of the Good-King-Henry herb, two litres of water, two kilos of sugar, a glass of water, half a tablespoon of citric acid and 300-400 grams of ground walnuts.

Ivanova noted that two days before the cooking can begin, the Good-King-Henry must be boiled in a pot, stirred with a wooden spoon and poured into two glass lemonade bottles of 250 millilitres each, which is the amount for two doses. "Then the Good-King-Henry is whipped into a thick foam with the whisk in a copper bucket. Separately, sugar syrup is made from the two kilograms of sugar. The syrup and the Good-King-Henry foam are mixed, then put on the fire, while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Half a tablespoon of citric acid is added shortly before the halva is ready. It can caramelize and color very quickly. We know that it is ready after a few drops of it are placed in a plate and when it cools down it can be crumbled," said Ivanova. 

Finally, the walnuts are added to the mixture. "The amount of walnuts does not matter, as much as possible is fine. The halva is poured into a tray, in which there is baking paper in advance," she added. According to her, in order to prepare halva, it is necessary to have a wood stove in the house and dry wood for the fire.

She said that for Sirni Zagovezni in Borovo there are still people, although very few, who make this halva. "The problem also comes from the fact that households no longer have wood-burning stoves. The stove must have a large plate," Ivanova said.

She insists that homemade halva is much better than store-bought. "It has a nuttier taste, is always much sweeter, as it is made by one's own hands," she pointed out.

The Living Human Treasures - Bulgaria, which is part of the Living Human Treasures UNESCO programme, is organized by the Culture Ministry and encourages the bearers of intangible cultural heritage to practice the activities and pass on knowledge and skills to the next generations. The programme is carried out in two stages - regional and national. The activities or skills offered for registration must be from the spheres of manifestation of the intangible cultural heritage, according to the National Register of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.