An exhibition of survaknitsi by the artist Tanya Stoyanova can be viewed until December 23 at the Ethnographic Museum in Razgrad.
At the opening today the director of the Regional History Museum Tanya Todorova said that the exhibition of the beautiful survaknitsi is the end of the series of initiatives of the museum dedicated to the Christmas-New Year ritual calendar of the kapantsi: a workshop for children from Razgrad schools on making survaknitsi and recreating the traditions and the rituals of Ignazhden, again with the children of Razgrad.
“Making a survaknitsa is a labor-intensive job: from the selection of the dogwood branch so that it can be compositionally shaped as a survaknitsa, and the selection of fruits typical of the region, corn, peppers…, as well as wool – carrying wishes for auspiciousness next year”, the author Tanya Stoyanova reveals some of the intricacies of making survaknitsi. In the exhibition, a connection with ethnography is also sought – there are arranged towels and bags for collecting gifts during the celebration of St. Basil’s Day.
“The exhibition is the finale of our magical journey through time, customs and rites above all of the kapantsi. The children not only made survaknitsi, not only participated in reenactments of Ignazhden customs, but also managed to get acquainted with details of the Bulgarian winter calendar, which are not known here or have been long forgotten: the river pebbles in the bags of the survakarchettes in the Rhodopes with a wish as many as there are pebbles in the river and as much as they weigh, so many coins and the same weight in the purses, as well as the curving with the tongs from the stove in several villages in Ludogorie with the wish that as the tongs are healthy, so is the person healthy”, said the ethnographer Daniela Gancheva.
She especially thanked Tanya Stoyanova for her responsiveness in the realization of the ideas in the museum on the eve of Christmas and New Year’s Eve and emphasized the fact that the survaknitsi made by her are finished works of art with many, very finely interwoven in them ancient practices and messages. In this case – the colored wool from the camel’s wrist at the traps, which protects against all evils and above all – from diseases. “These survaknitsi fit perfectly into our traditions and enrich our world, and on the eve of the holidays they also bring light that we all need today”, is Daniela Gancheva’s assessment of the exhibition, which can be viewed until December 23.
It was carried out with the active participation of the designer at RHM-Razgrad Mihail Marinov.
