There will be a demonstration of sokai-style headscarf tying

On April 16 at 5:00 PM, the book “Sokai” by Svetoslav Petrov will be presented at the Ethnographic Museum in Razgrad, and a demonstration of sokai-style headscarf tying will take place, according to the Regional Historical Museum. The children’s dance school “Hortse” will also participate in the presentation.

The book “Sokai” is the latest study dedicated to the traditional bridal head covering known as “sokai,” worn in the regions of Tarnovo, Gabrovo, and Lovech until the mid-19th century.

The author of the book, Svetoslav Petrov, is an ethnographer and Director of the Historical Museum in the town of Elena. He was born in 1990 in Elena, where he began his education, later continuing at the Language High School in Lovech. He completed his higher education at St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo, majoring in Ethnology. He currently heads the museum institution in Elena, and his research interests are primarily focused on the material culture of Bulgarians, in particular their traditional clothing and types of bridal head coverings.

His passion for Bulgarian traditional costume inspires him to research, reconstruct, and restore prototypes of our national identity, including the creation of complex head coverings.

The book “Sokai,” which he authored, is a rigorously scholarly yet patriotic study of the traditional sokai-style bridal head covering.

The use of the sokai-style head covering is associated with the ethnographic group known as the Balkan people, who inhabited the northern slopes of the Central Balkan Mountains and the Fore-Balkan region, and it is directly connected to their habitat and traditional costume. An element of this costume is the bridal head covering “sokai”, which has three variants: the Tarnovo (Kilifarevo) type, worn in the mountain settlements south of Veliko Tarnovo; the Gabrovo type, распространен around Gabrovo, Tryavna, and Dryanovo; and the Lovech type, a variation of the Gabrovo style.