Traditional Ritual Responsesto Contemporary Misfortunes ― The Youth Kurban Sacriice and the Regulation of Social Life in a Post-socialist Bulgarian Village

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the so-called youth kurbans conducted
in the spring of 2006 in the villages of Kralev Dol and Yardzhilovtsi,
in midwestern Bulgaria, inhabited exclusively by Orthodox Christians.
The aim was to trace the use of traditional ritual practices in enriching
and regulating the social life in the village in the post-socialist period.
The analysis focuses on contemporary forms of collective ritual sacrifice,
the kurban ― a feast with key social functions in the Balkan context ―
performed in times of natural and personal misfortune. The emphasis
is on examples re-established by young people in the first decade of the
new millennium. They organise, perform, and present the ritual sacrifice, self-regulating the social life in the village without the intervention
of the Bulgarian Orthodox church. Traditional ritual patterns are widely
used in response to social adversities and natural disasters. I suggest
that at the beginning of the new millennium, the collective kurban and
the joint ritual meal are becoming an integral part of everyday local religious
practice, as well as an important element in marking and regulating
the social and cultural boundaries of different groups in a postsocialist
Bulgarian village.