I went to Pernik for the first time this weekend. This is probably something I should be embarrassed by given how close the city is to Sofia I don't have time for that. What I really want to talk about is the <a href="http://www.surva.org/TheFestival_Eng.html" target="_blank">Surva Festival</a> that was held there this weekend.

<em>Amazing</em>.

And kind of difficult to put into worlds.

The festival grows out of a tradition in Bulgaria where men dress up in elaborate costumes to celebrate the arrival of the new year and in the process scare away evil spirits lurking in the village in order to promote health, wealth and happiness.

Today the festival is held at the end of January and villages from all over Bulgaria participate as well as groups from Serbia, Macedonia and even Albania. I guess the best way to describe it is part parade, part festival and part party. Groups wait in line for their turn to preform in front of judges. People take pictures of and with these men. Everyone seems to be drinking to stave off the cold. When the previous two things aren't happening the men are busy showing off by jumping up and down to ring the bells attached to them or playing drums to dance to. It's a wonderful cacophony of ringing bells, shouting and drumming.

I've never seen anything like it.

And when it came to this event my imagination sucked. I'd seen some pictures and heard some stories before going. So I figured I basically knew what to expect. As it turns out, none of this prepared for me for this event at all. I didn't come close to imagining the sights or sounds that greeted me in Pernik.

I was surprised by the range of colors in the costumes, the size and scope of the festival and the participants, the number of attendees and the all around joyous feel of the event.

It's been at or below freezing in Bulgaria these last few weeks and I expected to be<em> really</em> cold at this festival. Sure a big cup of hot wine helped but that's false warmth. It was cold. Don't get me wrong. B<strong></strong>ut the excitement in the air made everything a lot more manageable. Oh and my smart-wool socks helped too.

After a couple of hours, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pljeskavica" target="_blank">pleskavitsa</a> and plenty of photos, I felt like I'd seen what I'd come for