Nestinari (Fire Dancing)

Nestinari are people who dance bare feet in burning coal on the night of June 3rd. The custom was originally pagan but as so many other customs and dates, with the coming of Christianity, successfully combined pagan symbolism with Christian faith. Since then Nestinari dance with an icon of St. Konstantine and St. Helena in their hands. The dancers are generational, it is very rare for an outsider to become a Nestinar. Usually they come from Nestinari families.

Nestinari was added to the UNESCO list of non material tresures of the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIAcYCAWIqo - a rare sighting of a lone Nestinar in a village where today the custom doesn't exist anymore.

The day in the Bulgari village, the only place remaining where the custom is preserved as it was, starts with a ritual procession of the Nestinari taking the icon of St. Konstantine and Helena to the sacred spring nearby, ritually washing themselves in the water, then taking the icon back to the chapel in the village where they stay inside for the rest of the day with no food or water. They listen only to the beat of the ritual drums for the whole day and pray, gradually reaching a trance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f41lmvMKtE0

When the dusk comes, the fire is started at the village square and when the darkness falls, the Nestinari enter the coal, sometimes they yell but not of pain, they experience a culmination of their long held emotions, it's ecstatic. Gradually the dance becomes more rhythmic, following the drums as the Nestinari dance, first making a cross in the coal to honour the saints, then continuing in a circle. It's very common for the crowd to fall in trance too, so if you're an emotional creature, bring a friend to keep you away from the coal! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8vPckBOGb0

Seriously, I've seen it once many years ago and it's a lifetime experience. The drums themselves are so powerful and the feeling is surreal! Nestinari is an act of sacrifice, cleaning and surrendering. It's a culmination of spirit ruling over the matter as Nestinari never get hurt or burned. It's faith against all else, mind against all we see and touch, it's about the most important being known with the heart not with the brain. :)

While there are Nestinari attractions for tourists along the seaside, the place to truly understand the symbolism and the meaning of the ritual remains only Bulgari in the Strandza mountain.