Winter Festivals of Bulgaria – Babinden

One of the main reasons I travelled to Bulgaria in the first place was to experience a handful of particular festivals and traditions that occur in the new year. Some of these were reasonably well known outside of Bulgaria and others pretty much unknown, like Babinden. Over the next 3-4 posts, I want to take a look at some of those traditions starting with Babinden or Midwives Day.

Unlike the other traditions and festivals I experienced in Bulgaria, Babinden is much less rigid in both timings and what occurs. This is due to the fact that it’s carried out on a village by village basis and sometimes there can even be a number of Babinden celebrations within a single village.

The word Babinden derives from the Bulgarian for midwife (which is also the word for grandmother), baba. The feast of Babinden generally occurs at the start of January, traditionally on the 8th, however, this is often quite flexible in practice. In Bulgarian culture, both newborn children and babas are held in high regard. In times gone by babas played an incredibly important role due in village life.

Babinden, Midwives Day

We had explained to our hosts in the small village where we were staying that we were interested in photographing Babinden rituals. Luckily for us, there would be a celebration the very next day, in the exact home were we were staying. This would bring the babas, young mothers and newborn children from the village together in one place.

Traditionally men aren’t allowed to take part in the celebrations but in cases like this, where I already had built a relationship with those involved and being an outsider of the village anyway, traditions can be relaxed!

The ritual of Babinden takes many forms nowadays. Traditionally it was an all-day affair, starting early in the morning and ending late in the evening. As time has gone on, and traditions weakened, it’s now more common to find the celebrations carried out over the feast in the space of a couple of hours.

Despite the differences in how Babinden is celebrated there are still a few key rituals that occur in most Babinden celebrations. Firstly, the ritual starts with the bathing and preparation of the young babies. The babies are then blessed for good health and may receive gifts.

In the case of the Babinden celebrations I witnessed, one of the young babies was then strapped to the back of the oldest baba. A beautiful symbolism of the old and new life of the village.

In some areas of Bulgaria, it is even traditional for the babas to be bathed in the river, however this is rare (especially when temperatures are as low as -20C). Instead, the ritual is more symbolic nowadays and carried out with a washing of the hands.

It’s small situations like this where having a small camera like my Lumix GX8 is great. I can get right into the action without too much fear. The fact that I’m almost always shooting in silent shutter means that the distracting clunk of the mirror and shutter is not there and the camera is instantly much less distracting.

Removing the visual of holding the camera to the eye and instead using the rear touchscreen also helps to make the camera less obtrusive, especially when paired with the small 15mm prime.

There’s something about the way that the little Leica 15mm f1.7 lens renders the image means that I almost never take that lens off.

The final stage and the main centerpiece of the Babinden celebrations is the feast of the young mothers. The young mothers will prepare a feast of some form, often with simple food like meat, bread, banitsa (a filo pastry type dish with cheese inside) and some form of alcohol, either wine or rakia (the locally produced fruit brandy that is ubiquitous across Bulgaria).

The feast ends in dancing and singing. Traditionally, it is not until the feast is concluded that the men of the village can be involved in the celebrations.

The dancing consists of the traditional Bulgarian line dance known as Horo, a simple dance that is made up of a combination of steps based around a simple rhythm. The number of steps forward, backwards or sideways depends on the particular music. At this point, lots of alcohol was on offer and some of the most energetic babas I’ve ever seen came out to dance!

That pretty much concludes this short post. Keep an eye out next week where I will be sharing images from the Kukeri festivals!

Spread the Word

If you enjoyed this photographic story and images, I would love it if you could share it with your friends and family. If you’re also interested in joining me in Bulgaria during January 2018, I’m opening up a small photography tour for only 6 people. For the next two weeks, the tour will be on early bird discount so don’t miss out on this great experience. If you wish to join us, you can find out more here.