On March 3, 2025 (Monday), the Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv will be closed due to Bulgaria’s National Holiday.

We look forward to welcoming you again on March 4 during our regular opening hours!

Thank you for your understanding and happy holiday!

The material National Holiday is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

The Saint is venerated as the patron saint of potters, tile makers, brick makers, shoemakers, cobblers, and others.

St. Spyridon’s Day was celebrated with a festive procession and a solemn liturgy in the Church of St. Virgin Mary.

The procession of craftsmen dressed in festive folk costumes and citizens who joined them started from the courtyard of the Ethnographic Museum, led by the icon of St. Spyridon, carried by the master tailor Ivan Tonev. To the sound of the bagpipe, the craftsmen walked through the streets of the Old Town and took part in the solemn liturgy in the church “St. Virgin Mary”, where the priest consecrated the so-called Guild`s pendiharo (five-loaf bread) for the health of all the living and in memory of the deceased masters.

After the service, the craftsmen returned to the Ethnographic Museum, where the exhibition “To Weave Dreams” was opened on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Stoyna Krasteva, who was part of the circle of craftsmen in Plovdiv.

In the end, as is tradition, everyone gathered for a common meal to taste the traditional Kurban, which the masters give every year in honour of their patron saint.

The material St. Spyridon’s Day is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

Her creativity was based on an exceptional knowledge of traditional techniques and technologies of weaving, embroidery and ornamentation, of stylistic peculiarities and local artistic specificities. Stoyna Krastanova worked only with natural materials.

She was a master weaver and had spent he lifetime touching the threads with awe to dye them, her dreams were filled with colour and ornament, and creativity was the meaning of her life.

The exhibition can be viewed until 4 January 2024.

The material To Weave Dreams is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

In Plovdiv, traditionally, the General Craft Association celebrates St. Spiridon. The traditional rite of initiation into the rank of the master craftsman was also part of the guild celebration. The feast of the guilds was accompanied by town-wide folk rejoicings.
The whole procession of festively dressed craftsmen and citizens will march to the church “St. Virgin Mary”, where a solemn liturgy will be celebrated. After feasting on the consecrated Guild`s pendiharo (five-loaf bread) and kolivo (boiled wheat) for the health of all the living and in memory of the deceased masters, everyone will return to the Ethnographic Museum.

In honour of the patron saint, the guild would purchase a sacrificial male animal with common funds, which would be slaughtered for the Kurban and a communal meal would be organised. The day ended with a festive ziafet (feast), where masters, squires and apprentices sat at a common table and made merry as they should.

The programme includes:

– 10. 30 a. m. – Meeting point in the courtyard of the Regional Ethnographic Museum

– 11. 00 – Festive procession through the streets of the Old Town (starting from the courtyard of the Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv)
–
11. 15 a. m. – festive liturgy in the church “St. Virgin Mary. “

– 12. 30 pm – Opening of the exhibition “To Weave Dreams” on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Stoina Krastanova

The material The Regional Ethnographic Museum celebrated the Day of Saint Spyridon is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

Organized by the National Centre for Alternative Communication “We Hear You”, in collaboration with the ethno photographer Assen Velikov. Together they are realizing a unique series of five separate musical photo shoots, featuring non-professional models with different hearing deficits and live music by professional performers of Bulgarian folklore.

The photos were taken in five picturesque places around the country for 6 months: with a Rhodope bagpipe in Koprivshtitsa (performed by Ivan Balabanov, head of the Petko Voyvoda bagpipe ensemble), with a kaval in Old Plovdiv (performed by Ivan Peychev, DFA “Philip Kutev”), with a bagpipe in the village of Krushovitsa, Elin Pelin municipality (performed by Denitsa Hristova, DFA “Philip Kutev”), with tambura in the village of Svezhen, Plovdiv municipality (performed by Christian Tsviatkov, folk quintet “Teodosii Spasov”), with drum in the village of Yavrovo, Plovdiv municipality (performed by Genadi Rashkov, folk quintet “Teodosii Spasov”).

The eight models posed in folk costumes from different ethnographic regions, some of the costumes are from the personal collection of the photographer Assen Velikov.

“We invited non-hearing people who we have known for years or were highly recommended to us for the photo shoots. We decided to shoot according to the number of participants and the professional commitment of the musicians. Sometimes the model and the musician were from the same native region, and this predetermined the costume from which ethnographic area the photo shoot would be. Despite the lack of a preliminary scenario, the participants very quickly got into the role, knowing what they had to do, and all we had to do was to ask them to test their sensations without and with a technical tool, close to the instrument, by touching it or the performer” – said the organizer of the exhibition Christina Tchoparova, a journalist with many years of experience and chair of the association NCAC “We Hear You”.

The goal behind the “In Search of Sound” initiative is to have models – all with varying degrees of hearing impairment – interact with musical instruments and examine how, and in what ways, they respond to the sounds, rhythms and melodies of live, immediate sound. The photographs featured in the exhibition have captured exactly this interaction and testing of acoustic capabilities by people who are partially or completely deaf.

“The idea of a photo exhibition appeared as a natural consequence of this musical experiment. Each photo session tells a story that can be made into an exhibition of its own. When selecting the photos for this one, however, Assen Velikov and I were guided by a completely different idea – the shots were not supposed to tell stories but to show the captured emotional moments of the overall search for sound. It was worth showing all this to the general public because of the cause behind the experiment and our belief that music as a healing tool can be the key to awakening “sleeping” acoustic nerves in people with hearing loss,” Tchoparova said.

The twenty-one panels from the photo exhibition “In Search of Sound” will be on display in the lounge of the Regional Ethnographic Museum until 31 January 2024.

The material In search of sound is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

This exhibition presents one of the most important customs regarding the Bulgarian wedding- the so-called “ritual gift giving”.

Gift-giving has the meaning of good wishing “without words” through the language of objects and symbols. It shows the skills of the young bride. The bride’s trousseau invariably includes the gifts prepared for the wedding: peshkiri (towels), aprons and cushions – fabrics that served a specific ritual function. Each element of the costume carries a message.

The material The Regional Ethnographic Museum open doors to students on the National Enlighteners Day is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.