Великден

As I am sure many of you know today was Easter Sunday in Bulgaria (and elsewhere). This meant that we had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate the day again with the Bulgarian community in our area. Minus the wind gusts, we had perfect weather for our gathering at a local park.

There was a great turn-out and everyone brought a dish for the potluck. The tables were laden, as usual. Being a vegetarian, I am always in seventh heaven with all the delicious salads: couscous, rice, lettuce, potatoes, vegetables, herbs. Yum.

There was also a kozunak contest and I dared enter with only my second attempt at this traditional Easter bread. To my utter surprise, I ended up winning the contest. My bread was voted (and they really had judges) best overall for taste, appearance, etc. I won a t-shirt with the Cyrillic alphabet on it which I will be rocking at the reunion as well as a CD of Bulgarian music. The funny thing is, I didn't even get to taste my kozunak (wish I had a picture because it was prettier than last week's) because it was all gone by the time I made it over to the bread table. Several native Bulgarians sought me out to compliment my baking and asked for the recipe. Who would have thought?

The Easter egg hunt was a lot of fun for the kids and over in a flash. My little ones just watched from the sidelines, but I hope next year they will get the idea and participate.

Of course, no Bulgarian party would be complete without the dancing of the horo.

We also had the great pleasure of meeting the Van Roekel family at this celebration. Nikolas and Emilia started their lives at the same orphanage, so in years to come they will appreciate this special connection. This time around, however, they would hardly sit still for a photo together.

Once again, we had a wonderful time with our friends from around the world and look forward already to next Easter.