Christmas '09

Zdraveytey everyone!

Storytime again folks. I'm sorry about the somewhat repetitive consistency of the posts but the 3 day New Year's post will be at least a little different.

Today, I want to talk about Christmas. It’s been one, let me tell you. I guess the real question here is what sorts of things Bulgarians do during the holiday. Either that, or what I did over the holiday. I guess I can talk about both.

One thing to note, though, is that Christmas is a 3-day celebration in Bulgaria. Not some pansy go-to-sleep-then-wake-up-and-open-presents-then-complain-then-go-back-to-sleep-then-wake-up-and-go-to-work sort of deal. It’s more like go-to-sleep-then-wake-up-and-open-presents-then-complain-then-go-back-to-sleep-then-wake-up-and-continue-eating-and-drinking sorts of holiday. So first I’ll present what Bulgarian traditions are then I’ll write about what I did. I spent the Christmas with my counterpart so I suspect that a lot of it will be “Yup. Did that.” Also, I’m very much abbreviating what Bulgarians do. Mainly because I can’t bother looking for the research I did regarding the Bulgarian Christmas traditions.

Dec. 24th

Bulgaria: They eat only vegetarian this day. It’s a lot of rice, stuffed peppers and cabbage. Then they leave the food out for their visiting ancestral spirits. They also bake this giant dinner roll in which there is a coin. They break off pieces from the main roll and whoever gets the coin will have a lucky year. I think it might be fiscally lucky but don’t quote me on that.

Zack: Yup. Did that. Well really everything except that part with leaving the food out. I don’t really know if they did that. I also watched Home Alone. It’s really weird to think it’s been 20 years since the movie first came out. Holy crap. I feel kinda old now. I also drank homemade wine.

Dec. 25th

Bulgaria: Bring on the meat! Yeah there are presents and whatever, and holiday cheer but there’s meat after a vegetarian meal! As a side note, Santa Clause is called ‘Dyado Kolada’ or Father Christmas here.

Zack: Yup. Did that too. We had roast turkey and turkey with cabbage and blood sausage (which was pretty good) and other good foods. We also watched Home Alone 2. Macaulay Culkin (sp?) was a cute little kid and he looked like a bunch of the kids I taught the month before. I also drank more homemade wine. OH! And I got peed on by a little girl. 

Dec. 26th

Bulgaria: Another big meal. Sadly I don’t really know the lore behind the 26th but who’s going to turn down a good meal?

Zack: Changing it up here: Did that. Yup. But seriously, I had dinner at another colleague’s house. I didn’t know it before, but I taught her son in my 2nd grade class. But more good food, I suspect leftovers from the night before (not that there’s anything wrong with more turkey and blood sausage). I drank even more homemade wine. And homemade rakia. You may remember me telling you about that months ago. Strong stuff there. I also watched some movie with a young Lindsay Lohan and Tyra Banks. Something about a Barbie doll coming to life.

Dec. 27th

This isn’t part of the 3 days of Christmas but I wanted to put it out there because it was spent with my counterpart. It was her birthday and she invited me over for dinner. We all sat ate, drank and talked. There was also cake. Not much more to say about it except that there was more homemade wine.

So as you can see, my Christmas was pretty great. Lots of food and wine. I wanted to have a traditional Christmas holiday before I left. I never expected that it would be the first Christmas here. Next time it’ll be about New Year’s and there’s nothing traditional about what I did.

This is the Peace Corps and we love our holidays. I mean, we ARE a government organization, right?

-Zack