Easter Sunday was a busy day for us. We started out hosting a family brunch and Easter egg hunt in the morning and then attended the Easter celebration of Cincinnati's Bulgarian Cultural Club in the afternoon. This is this group's biggest annual gathering with people coming from as far as Dayton, OH, Columbus, OH and parts of Kentucky.
When we arrived at the party, we were overwhelmed by the large number of people and by the tables laden with food. Before we had even sat down, we were served slices of Kozunak, Bulgaria's traditional Easter bread. Earlier in the day, there had been a Kozunak contest and the slices on our plates came from the winning bread. Then we tried a main dish containing lamb, rice, spinach and green onions made by our friend Dani. She explained that lamb or lamb liver is prepared for the traditional Easter meal all over Bulgaria. As we looked around the tables, we could see that there were many different versions of lamb cooked according to various family recipes.
Around 4:00 pm, it was time for music and dancing. From everything we have seen, Bulgarians love to dance and this time, they chose traditional Bulgarian songs and dances. For the next two hours, we watched a line of dancers form and re-form, people joining in, others dropping out. The line of dancers wound around the tables, varying in length, but never stopping altogether.
We even learned about Bulgarian Easter egg fights in which you have to hit two eggs together just right in a certain manner to see which one will break. Without the visual aid of hard-boiled, died eggs, I cannot explain the exact method, but suffice it to say that the winning egg moves on to its next competitor until only one eggs survives intact. The holder of this egg is said to be blessed with good luck.
As always, we were among those who left early. Still, we had a wonderful time and cannot wait until our children will be able to be part of this celebration.
what an awesome experience.
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