site.btaNearly 200 Participants in Surva Festival Visit Sofia

Nearly 200 participants wearing costume and mummer's masks paraded in Sofia's Boris Garden Park on Sunday. The festival started with a pageant of mummers from the western towns of Pernik and Radomir and several nearby villages.

Many Sofia residents flocked to buy souvenirs and sample traditional dishes.

There were girls among the mummers, like 17-year-old Natalia, who did not find the 15-kilo bells too heavy in the fight against evil spirits. Her father is also a mummer and he got her into masquerade.

Kiril Shtrapulin, who makes mummer's masks from natural materials, said the rougher the wood, the scarier the mask, which helps in chasing away the evil spirits.

The event in Sofia took place ahead of Pernik's Surva International Festival of Masquerade Games, which will be held on January 24-26 with the participation of more than 130 groups.

The Surva festival has been held in Pernik in January every even year since 1966. It acquired international status in 1985 and Pernik was accepted as a member of the Federation of European Carnival Cities in 1995. As of 2009, the festival has been held every year.

The Surva International Festival of Masquerade Games is the biggest masquerade event in the Balkans. In 2015, the Surova folk feast in Pernik Region was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.