German

On the 12th of May in some villages of Strandzha Mountain, the folk rite German – Gradushkar (Hail man) is celebrated to obtain more rain shower immediately after the custom Peperuda.

On this day is forbidden to work in the field. If someone dares to overstep this rule, people stop him by force, take the oxen out of the harness and break the cart into pieces to protect the village from mischief causing hailstorm. If the locals see a dark cloud over the village on this day, they all come out and shout “Hey German, you big …! Take it (the hailstorm) away with you in to the deepest forest, there where even axe doesn’t fell, where the cock doesn’t call, where roll (bread) isn’t kneaded!”

The girls part of the Peperuda celebration on the day before and the widows prepare out of mud and clay a small naked male figure with emphatic phallus. This figure is called German and is meant to be treated as a dead man. The women put the clay figure on to a tile or inside a box similar to dead man’s coffin. They cross his hands and put a burning candle between them.

Traditionelle bulgarische Bräuche - German (Deutsche Version herunterladen)