The modern-day fireplace is
different from a traditional Bulgarian fireplace, the difference
coming not so much from the shape, but rather more so from relevant
mythology.
The fire burning the
domestic fireplace can rejuvenate, grow old, resurrect… It is a deity,
guard, healer… And the hearth is the heart, the sacred hub and symbol
of the home. The hearth is where the patron spirit of the home
resides, which accounts for the fire never going out in a Bulgarian
fireplace. In wintertime the fire is burning inside the house, in
summertime- in an open, outside hearth. In the daytime a delicious
stew would be simmering over the flames or a loaf of bread would be
baking in the embers. At nightfall the entire family would gather by
the fireplace to have dinner. And granny would be telling fairy tales
or family legends to a brood of grandchildren. Overnight embers would
be buried under ashes to keep them alive until morning. Only once a
year, on a specifically agreed day in summer would all families put
out the fire in the hearth. Then they would light up a new “live”
fire, a portion of which each family would take back home to
rejuvenate the fire in the domestic hearth. This new fire might drop
of itself from the heavens, like a spark breaking away from the
heavenly fire of the scorching summer sun. This divine fire could be a
gift from the God-sun or judgment… If it would happen to set houses
and fields ablaze, raising them to the ground, this would be a
punishment for sins committed by some village folk, abusing a rigid
moral code or ritual taboos. And if not a punishment then the divine
flames will become guards of the people, their homes, cattle and
fields. Come spring, the people will set fires ablaze out in the open
to re-kindle the heavenly body after the winter. This fiery rotation
between land and heaven, man and Sun is what begets life, in nature
and human life.
Traditionally, folk beliefs would impart magic power to
fire and objects used in the fireplace. Made of iron, these objects
would double their safeguarding power assuming the magical
characteristics of the metal too. Thus a pair of fire irons and a
poker would be turned into ”ritual weapons”. Come spring, women would
”arm” themselves with fire irons and pokers to circle around houses
clanging deafeningly and chanting exorcisms. The idea would be to
banish snakes and lizards, emerging from their winter lairs, away from
the house. Present-day Bulgarians do however find it hard to account
for fire irons being used as a “protector” of young mothers and infant
babies. In times past, a young mother would be expected, on going out,
to take along a pair of fire irons to protect her from sickness and
evil spirits. What is more, fire irons were supposed to prevent the
deceased from turning into an evil spirit and hence it would be placed
by the deathbed. A pair of fire tongs would be considered a living
creature too. At night it was to be placed lying on the floor to rest,
after being on its feet all day long doing. Failure to lie it to rest
could result in its opening the door to evil-doing spirits. The
three-legged iron grill, sitting in the centre of the fireplace and on
which cooking vessels would placed used to be the object of similar
superstitions too. It was never to be kept idle in the fireplace as
this could spell trouble. It could bar the passage of the human soul
to the hereafter and to those already there it could block escape from
hell. Superstition had it that if the three-legged grill were left
outside the house, turned upside down on the ground, it could easily
thwart hail and thunder storms.
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PEACE HAVENS of BULGARIA
