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Strandja Was Born of God's Smile
The Standart Daily, 30.01.2006
Here people dance over live embers. The mountains shelter animals and plants that were long extinct in other parts of the world When God decided to create Strandja, He did not utter a word but just smiled. The divine smile created this piece of land. That is the reason why even today it is like a smile - composed and mysterious. No matter where from you look at it, Strandja always looks as if floating in the infinity, as the legend says. Probably if a story about the beautiful mountains is to be told today, it would not sound all that poetic. It could not conceal the fact that the villages in Strandja are deserted and the few who still live there have a hard life. Problems, political mistakes, etc, will be mentioned but one thing remains unaltered by time - the beauty and grandeur of Strandja. Statisticians are explicit: Strandja National Park is the largest reserve on the territory of Bulgaria. It encompasses five reserves and a great number of natural sights. Even Europe acknowledges that some of the rare species of plants, fish, mammals and reptiles that live there are of world significance. Every European country would have been reasonably proud of having such a biological diversity. Strandja is the only mountains, scientists maintain, that remained intact during the Tertiary when the glaciation froze the whole of Europe. That is why the evergreen bushes, the eastern beech and different kinds of oak survived. Many of the animal species are registered in the Bulgarian and the World Red Books. To linguists, the name Strandja is derived from the old Bulgarian root "stran" which means separated, closed, odd and mystical. Even such genius as Tolstoy was attracted by the spirit of the place. He headed to the local village of Yasna Poliana to spend his last days but death took him on the way. Hardly another natural park exists whether the perfect balance of the soft mountains cut by two picturesque rivers - the Rezovska and the Veleka is further flavoured by the salty waters of the Black Sea. This is Strandja - 1161 sq km that God created taking the same efforts as when he made the Heaven. But Strandja is not only exotic plants, rare animals and fairy landscape. One can still meet those witty, proud people that are always ready to start a song that is both sad and sweet, or dance the slow rhythmic dances or tell a story of old times, passed from generation to generation over the centuries. The true fire-dancers are only here, because these mountains created the ancient ritual. On June 3, the Day of St. Constantine and St. Elena, in the central square of the village of Balgari a huge bonfire is set. And when the shadows grow and flames become crimson embers, the dancers start their fiery dance. Their bare feet trod the blazing ashes, the sound of a sad song in the air and the icon in their hands is as if alive. see source
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