An English Christmas in Bulgaria

If there were three pieces of advice I could give to people moving to Bulgaria they would be “integration, integration, and integration“. This country has so much to offer: the people are welcoming, the scenery is breathtaking, the food is sumptuous, and the traditions are vibrant. Having said this, however, Christmas is the one time of year when I want nothing more than my customary English celebration! This post will describe a Bulgarian Christmas. it will then explore the cultural differences in relation to a traditional English Christmas. It will conclude with a description of how we now marry both traditions to enjoy an English Christmas in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria celebrates Christmas (Kolida) on the 25th of December each year. Other Orthodox countries in Eastern Europe celebrate Christmas on 7th January as prescribed by the Julian Calendar. During World War II, however, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church adopted the Gregorian calendar. In this respect, both England and Bulgaria celebrate Christmas on the same day.

A Bulgarian Christmas dinner

I was surprised on first moving here to discover that the main Christmas meal is eaten on Christmas Eve. This meal is known here as ‘Budni Vecher’. It bears little resemblance to a traditional Christmas dinner being mainly a vegan meal.  This is not to say that it is in any way inferior, if anything the table is spread even more lavishly than the grandest of English Christmas tables – it is simply just different. Though the food is extremely enjoyable there isn’t a turkey in sight, and I confess to initially feeling a little homesick.

Bulgarian folklore has it that Mary gave birth to Jesus on Christmas Eve, but didn’t announce it until the following day – hence this difference in tradition.

Superstition and tradition

My time over here has taught me that the Bulgarians are quite a superstitious people. They also have lots of traditions that are rooted in paganism. This is one of the reasons that we find life over here so interesting and colourful!

Christmas dinner is no exception. Foods are eaten that swell when cooked such as beans, rice, and grains. These are believed to encourage fertility, health and prosperity.

The Orthodox Bulgarian tradition is to fast from eating meat in the weeks leading up to Christmas. This also includes Christmas Eve. The Christmas Eve meal consists of an odd number of vegetarian dishes (7,9 or 11). There are various folklore pertaining to the reasons behind these numbers.

Dishes include bean soup, stuffed peppers, potatoes, Sarmi (sauerkraut roles filled with rice) , Zelnik (pastry with sauerkraut), Tikvenik (pastry with grated pumpkin) . Dessert include grains cooked with sugar, Baklava (sweet dessert), pumkin dessert, fresh fruits and nuts. Walnuts play an important role – if they are cracked open and the nut is a good one then you will have a good year!

The meal also includes a special bread known as ‘pita’ which contains a coin, and sometimes small ” fortunes“. When the bread is broken the recipient of this coin is said to have good luck for the coming year.

The food is traditionally left on the table after everyone has finished eating so that ‘the dead relatives’ can enjoy it. The Bulgarians seem to celebrate ‘the dead’ much more than we do in England. It is customary to see photographs of dead people on the front of buildings where they once lived.

Carol singing

Carol singing is a further custom that we share with Bulgaria, however, they take this to a whole new level! I was overjoyed to witness my first ever koledari

A group of young men, dressed in traditional costume, go from house to house performing an array of Christmas carols. This was highly entertaining and nostalgic. Do read the article I have linked as this is a fascinating tradition enthused with history and folklore.

Escape to a simpler Place and time

Christmas here is much less materialistic than the Christmas we experienced in England. The shops are not laden with Christmas goods from July onwards! In fact, walking around the supermarket in December you barely notice the Christmas displays. The emphasis here is on families getting together, good food, and celebrating the birth of Christ.

Decorations here are much more humble and simplistic – Often home-made. You rarely see advent calendars, for example. Presents tend to be smaller and there is less of them. And there certainly isn’t the gift buying shopping frenzy that exists in England! Entertainment also tends to be simpler and homespun – telling jokes, music and traditional dancing being the staples.

Our first attempt at an English Christmas in Bulgaria

Before moving here full time, we did actually come over one Christmas. At the insistence of an expat friend of ours, we went to a restaurant on Christmas Day. Our friend assured us us that he had requested Turkey with all the trimmings, and that the proprietor understood what this entailed. The turkey did indeed arrive with trimmings – but they were not the trimmings we were used to! Instead, the turkey was stuffed with rice, came with its head intact, and had a large – what looked like an ostrich egg – at its rear! It was absolutely delicious and looked like something from “Porterhouse Blues “, but it just wasn’t the same.

My definition of an English Christmas

First of all let me begin by defining what a traditional English Christmas means for me: Turkey, chestnut stuffing, sage and onion stuffing, roast potatoes cooked in goose fat, pigs in blankets (sausages wrapped in bacon) cranberry sauce, turkey gravy, and a variety of vegetables. Desserts include Christmas pudding, Christmas cake and mince pies. Not to forget mulled wine, ‘after eight’ mints and irish coffee!

Some, but certainly not all of these ingredients are available over here. Here is a list of what is and isn’t available and how I am now able to reproduce an English Christmas in Bulgaria.

Fruit, Vegetables, and nuts

Fruit and Vegetables are easy to find – but they do tend to be seasonal. I have now learned to buy my parsnips, for example, just a few weeks before Christmas and to prepare and freeze them. I’ve never yet found any fresh Brussels sprouts – but they do sell them frozen.

There are a vast array of nuts available over here – including from our own trees! They seem to store really well, I have had some hazelnuts now for over two years. chestnuts are not a problem.

Turkey run!

The turkey was a bigger problem to source than the vegetables. Though it is possible to find these frozen, we do prefer the real McCoy.Fortunately, our dear friend Evan was able to put us in touch with a local turkey and goose farmer, and we were able to obtain our bird. The process, however, was much more “hands on” than obtaining one ready prepared, and once again brought home to us the link between the farmyard and the table – that we have become anaesthetised to in England.

Thankfully, Evan killed our birds, and plucked the feathers. So all we had to do was clean out the insides. I normally do this and it doesn’t trouble me. This year, however, I removed what I thought were two small bones from the neck only to discover that they were in fact half eaten snails!! If there is one thing I hate – it’s snails!

We also obtained a goose from the farm. So in addition to the meat we were then able to melt down and store some goose fat – which I have found impossible to find in the shops here.

All the trimmings

Finding ’English’ sausages was a further big hurdle. I have now discovered an English butcher who understands what the English request from a sausage at Christmastime, which is very different than the spicy sausages popular here. He’s a lovely gentleman and will post by Econt inside a refrigerated container. you can buy sausages from him all year round

Bacon, believe it or not, is yet a further issue. Bacon here tends to be very thick and full of fat, or the very thin and very expensive Italian type bacon. We have more latterly discovered English type bacon in LIDL. This is the only place we have ever found it, and it isn’t always available. However, this is back bacon, not the streaky kind that I usually use to protect my bird whilst cooking. Our friends had recently given us a large piece of pork fat when they killed their pig. The pigs here have a large thick layer of fat that English pigs don’t have, probably because of the colder winters. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it, but I decided that we could cut it into strips and use it instead of the streaky bacon. Huge success!

I also discovered that this fat can be melted down in the oven and then stored in jars in the fridge. It makes for excellent roast potatoes and I will be using it next year instead of goose fat! 

Making my various stuffings has not been a problem, and we have a large sage bush in the garden.

Cranberry sauce is a complete unknown over here to the best of my research. Thankfully, as I believe cranberry sauce really finishes off the turkey dinner, we have been able to find a substitute. This is my husband’s home-made sour cherry jam! . Although it isn’t quite the same, it still provides the same sweet/piquant fruity flavour that contrasts with the meat.

Compromise

Mince pies, Christmas cake, and pudding are impossible to find as they are simply not popular here. The first two years an English baker made them for me and provided a postal service. He has since decided that this is economically unviable. The third year I tried making my own cake, using dried fruit from the garden as the mixed dried fruit we are accustomed to in England with candid peel et cetera is also unavailable here. But I forgot to remove the grape seeds and so the final cake was inedible! I was also unable to obtain marzipan or rolled icing. Though it is possible to make these from scratch, it is very labour intensive. You can of course import from England, but this is extremely expensive.

This year, I have realised I need to make a compromise here. Enjoying an English Christmas in Bulgaria doesn’t have to be exactly the same as in England! I have discovered a brilliant new recipe for making mince pies. The recipe uses mixed spices that are available here – though I have to grind them by hand this was actually a really nice Christmas activity. I then also used the same spices in home-made mulled wine and cider. I will link a recipe for these as this has been a game changer for me!

After eight mints are not available, but again, good old LIDL Have a variety of mint chocolates that are equally as good.

I obtained some Christmas crackers on line this year. Again, they were an expensive import. I proudly presented them to my guests. They had no idea what to do with them, and even when demonstrated they didn’t seem particularly impressed. The gifts were lousy (as always) and of course they didn’t understand the jokes! One of our American friends asked “so you mean that today there are thousands of English people sitting around wearing crowns?”. I won’t bother with this unnecessary expense next year either.

In Conclusion

We enjoyed our Christmas immensely, as did our guests. After five years of trying to faithfully reproduce every aspect of an English Christmas, I have decided that I am not going to be such a perfectionist. As long as we have the basics, we can enjoy Christmas just as much as we did at home. My new trifle recipe was amazing, so much so that it it rendered a Christmas pudding redundant. And the turkey was beautiful. We still had our Christmas candles, napkins and decorations and tree. And most importantly, our new found friends.