Celebrating Christmas here in Bulgaria has been the richest time here so far. God has blessed us so much. God has given us good friends and a wonderful mentor who treats us as part of his family. I am so thankful for being involved in ministry here.
Friday
We gathered at church the day before the big Christmas Eve service to help set up for the service. We got there early enough to share a lunch with others from the church before we started our various tasks. Joshua and Andrei shoveled off all the snow from the sidewalks and walkways around the church. (Andrei, a 14 year old, and I had a snowball fight later in the afternoon, and had fun. Everyone else was too busy working to join in on the fun!) I helped clean, straighten up, and decorate. We put balloons and ribbons all over to make things look pretty and festive. The church was beautiful when we finished!
Friday evening was the Razgrad Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir Christmas Concert. We went with Pastor Nikolay and family, as well as a couple others from church. The music was beautiful; I really enjoyed it. It was neat to hear familiar songs sung in Bulgarian (and some in German, like the Hallelujah Chorus). Along with the orchestra, two choirs sang: the Razgrad city choir, and the Razgrad youth choir. Zhivka, the girl I went to coffee with two weeks ago, was singing in the youth choir. When the youth choir sang, I also noticed two other girls I knew from English Club. It was great to see each of those three girls after the concert. They were all excited and happy to see me, and I got several big hugs. :) It was neat that I had friends who were excited to see me.
Saturday: Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve Service
The Christmas Eve service started at 4pm on Saturday, and was supposed to last about two hours. We arrived at church around 1pm to make sure everything was ready. I wanted to print off music for my clarinet duet, but could not get it to work, so I had no music. Oh well. Once people started arriving at church, I had a good time greeting people and talking with them. Many people I recognized were there! People from the village church of Ossenets, boys from the juvenile delinquent school, and people from church.
There were about 200 people there, and 100 of them were children! At the end of the service, the children got shoeboxes from Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child; the children were excited all through the service, and got rather noisy (and slightly out of control) all through the service. My clarinet duet with Dani went well. (I had the song memorized, so the lack of sheet music was no problem.) We played, “What Child is This,” and it sounded great. It was neat to hear an American and a Bulgarian play clarinet together, because we each have different styles of playing. Many people told me after the service that it sounded great, and we needed to play more duets together. (Dani is currently teaching me a Bulgarian traditional dance song. He is good at being patient with me, because I have to learn by ear.) I also sang in the church choir. Two songs, all in Bulgarian! The whole service went well, and we were all pleased. Many new people had come, people who had not been to church before. It is great to see how God is working!
Budni Vecher
After the Christmas Eve service ended, we went to the home of Baba Tana to celebrate Budni Vecher, the Christmas Eve celebration. Pastor Nikolay and Yanita had generously invited us to join their family for Christmas Eve. We celebrated with Pastor Nikolay, Yanita, Baba Tana (Yanita’s mother), Baba Stiyanka (Nikolay’s mother), another Baba, Simon, and Joanna. It was a WONDERFUL evening! Bulgaria is traditionally an agricultural society, so many of the traditions from Budni Vecher come from agricultural traditions to wish luck for the next year. There are also Orthodox traditions, such as having 7, 9, or 13 (or some odd number) of meatless dishes for the main course. (Orthodox fast from meat and animal products during Advent.) Of course, because we are not Orthodox, we had main dishes with meat. There was so much delicious food! We enjoyed eating and talking and laughing together. It was wonderful to be with the family for Christmas. Traditionally, Bulgarians open their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. I got some presents, which was unexpected! I received some beautiful handmade items, such as a glass plate with a cute snowman on it, and an embroidered cloth (to decorate a small desk or table), and some other thoughtful gifts. I very much enjoyed Christmas Eve.
Sunday: Christmas Day
Caroling!
At 11pm on Christmas Eve, we met at the church to get ready to go caroling. There were close to fifteen of us young people. It is a tradition in Bulgaria to carol all night on Christmas Eve / Christmas morning, going around to people’s homes and eating there. We joined in the tradition, and had a great time! We ended up caroling for about eight hours. (I stopped at 7:45 am because I was about to fall over, so I went home for two hours of sleep before the Christmas morning service at church.) At church when we all met on Christmas Eve, we practiced singing a few songs. Some of the Christmas carols I had heard (we have them in English), but others I had not heard. There was only one sheet of paper for each song, so we all had to crowd around and crane our necks to see the words. I have now learned to read Bulgarian right ways up, sideways, and upside down. :) Didn’t think I’d be learning that!
The snow from Thursday had stuck around, except on the roads and sidewalks it had melted somewhat, then refroze, so everything was very slippery. We had fun sliding on the sidewalks. Joanna was my sliding buddy, and we would walk a few steps fast, then slide for several more steps. Linking arms helped us not fall down, and we had great fun! We also all kinda had a snowball fight when we were walking. There was lots of winter fun. We were constantly on the lookout for icicles, and would break them off and suck on them when we were thirsty. We did a LOT of walking! We went to seven or eight houses, and at each one we stayed anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour.
The first house we went to, no one was home. At the second house, the lady from church was not there, but her mom was. The third house, the people we wanted to see were there! At every house, we sang a song outside the door, then were invited inside. Once inside, we sang another couple songs, then ate some snacks and talked. Most of the homes had snacks like pretzels, cookies, crackers, or candies. At one home, we had about a full meal! (We stayed at that home longer than we stayed at the others, for good reason.) I got to eat some more traditional Bulgarian food that I had not had yet. I like Bulgarian food.
At every home we went to, we were greeted with delight. I think it really blessed the people we sang to. I could feel the joy radiating from us as we sang, and it was reflected on the faces of the people whose homes we were in. It was a blessing to me, as well! I thought it was a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas, singing praises to God all through the night.
Christmas Day at Church
The church service Christmas morning was more laid back than usual church services, because everyone was tired. All of us “youth” who had caroled through the night/morning got up on stage and sang one of the Christmas carols for everyone. After the regular church service, there was a talent show – some of the kids wanted to show their talents to the church, so there was some singing, piano playing, dancing, and poem reciting. Once that finished, we all joined together to eat. Because so much food is made for the Budni Vecher celebration, everyone had many leftovers, so they brought some to church for a potluck. We all enjoyed sharing a meal together and talking, then we went to our homes and rested. A few people went to the village of Kubrat for a church service, but I stayed home so I could skype with my family back in Washington for Christmas.
God blessed us with such a great way to celebrate Christmas this year. This will be a Christmas I will long remember.
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