Sofia echo 24 December 2009
Bulgaria’s Christmas rush
Road and rail stations in Bulgaria were choked with crowds and traffic intensified on major motorways as thousands of people rushed to their family circles for the close-knit celebration that is Бъдни вечер – Christmas Eve.
Weather in the capital city, Sofia, and much of the country was reported to be fine, nominally reducing the risks on the road, although Traffic Police issued a further appeal for careful driving.
Before traffic intensified, December 23 saw a number of road accidents, one in which two people died. In Sofia, there were 110 road accidents, including one that left two people seriously injured. On December 24, a 48-year-old woman died in a serious car crash that left the Stara Zagora-Nova Zagora road closed for some time.
Sofia Airport was expected 150 000 passengers to pass through its portals during the Christmas-New Year holidays, airport director Plamen Stanchev told Bulgarian news agency Focus on December 24.
Sofia Central Bus Station was crowded from early morning, with companies having provided extra buses to deal with demand.
While taxi companies contracted to be at the bus station rank were charging standard fees, cars from other companies were waiting in nearby streets, charging up to triple their stated tariffs, Focus said.
Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported delays in trains departing from Sofia central railway station.
Many who bought train tickets would not have seats. BNT interviewed a 74-year-old man who said he faced standing for eight hours on the trip to Varna, while another passenger said he would be standing all the way on the six-hour trip to Turgovishte.
Some of the delays were caused by trains being readied for departure with too few carriages, while one delay was caused by a train being re-shunted to remove a carriage where the heating was not working.
By early afternoon on December 24, all train and bus tickets were sold out, and none were available for December 24, Focus said.
Civil Defence, which in recent days has been dealing with the aftermath of the heavy snows this past weekend – draining flooded basements, pulling out cars stuck in snow and removing dangerous icicles from buildings, notably including a reported five-metre-long icicle on a building in Montana – said that it was ready for any eventuality as the Festive Season neared its peak.
Provided that all those travelling reach their destinations by the evening, the Bulgarian tradition of Christmas Eve being spent quietly at home with the immediately family circle will take over.
At 6pm, Bulgarian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Maxim is scheduled to officiate at the Christmas Eve service at Sofia’s St Alexander Nevsky cathedral, in a ceremony to be broadcast live on BNT.
For those who keep to Bulgarian Orthodox Christian traditions, the Christmas Eve table is set with vegetarian dishes on what constitutes the final night of the pre-Christmas abstention from meat and dairy products.
The table is set with an odd number of dishes, typically five, seven or nine. Tradition includes boiled wheat kernels, boiled beans, grape leaves stuffed with rice or bulgur, and dried fruit compote;
also garlic, nuts, honey, onions saved from summer, fresh fruit, wine and rakiya. This would be representative of every preserved or dry thing produced in the previous year.
Also on the table is placed dried wheat and the kolak, a ring-shaped cake, left over from Ignazhden.
In parts of western Bulgaria, and the Teteven, Plovdiv and Macedonia regions of the country, a freshly baked loaf of bread containing a piece of silver also joins the table.
This is possibly the most important family event of the year.
The Christmas Eve meal begins early, a legacy of rural traditions that doing so would encourage early wheat.
Among other traditions, while eating, people are not to rise from the table until the meal is completely over. A place is left open at the table, to represent a dead family member. Also, the table is not cleared and dishes are not washed, because it is believed that the dead, or variously Mary, the mother of Jesus, come back to feast as well.
The return to meat and dairy comes on Christmas Day.
Thu Dec 24, 2009 7:54 pm
