On the 29th of January, on the evening of a great celebration at the Cultural House of Sofia, the General Director of UNESCO - Ms. Irina Bokova, handed the Mayor - Mrs. Vyara Tserovska, the certificate of the registration of the "National Day Surova/Surva in Pernik" in the representative list of UNESCO.
After the Bistritsa Grannies, the Fire Dancing and the tradition of weaving the Chiprovtsy rugs, our country recorded another element of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
"I came to Pernik with pleasure to hand the certificate" – told the General Director of UNESCO to the "Diplomatic Spectrum" magazine. "I was in Bulgaria when we awarded the certificate to the mayor of Chiprovtsy and the regional governor of the Chiprovtsy rugs. And a little later I happily realized that the interest towards them,as well as the tourism in the city had tripled. This is a good example of economic development through culture."
After the official awarding of the certificate, the start of the 25th edition of the International Festival of the Masquerade Games "Surva" started in the city of Pernik, which this year celebrates an important anniversary - 50 years since its establishment.
The decision on the entry of the "National Day Surova/Surva in Pernik" in the representative list of UNESCO was taken on the 2nd of December, 2015 at a meeting of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the capital of Namibia - Windhoek. Its nomination was prepared back in the 2013 by the scientists: Assoc. Prof. Vanya Mateeva, Dr. Iglika Mishkova and Dr. Milena Lyubenova from the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum in BAS, and Tsvetanka Manova from the Regional History Museum in Pernik. In summary it may be best described in the official announcement of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences: the National Day Surova in Pernik is performed traditionally every year on the 13th and 14th of January - New Year of the old calendar. For the local communities today Surova is the most beloved holiday. The core element is the masquerade rituals through which positive transition is carried from the old to the new year. The direct executors of this ancient and alive New Year rituals are the Surva masquerade groups, which during those days play and perambulate the villages. In the Representative List of UNESCO are inscribed the Surva holiday villages in the region of Pernik, and not the Surva festival which is held in the city of Pernik. The festival is part of the urban culture, and Surova is a millennial custom preserved to our days by the local communities."
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Photos: "Diplomatic spectrum" magazine.