The Popalot Family Singers
Christmas Eve in Plovdiv
We spent today preparing for Christmas and celebrating our luggage reunion. Christmas dinner in Bulgaria is traditionally a vegetarian meal, always with an odd number of dishes. The bread is broken by the youngest and oldest at the table pulling from each end of the loaf. Then, before you eat, some singers from the countryside come into your house and do a folk number that sounds like a cross between Swiss yodelling and the Imam’s call to prayer. (I’m not entirely certain of that last tradition, but I am still hopeful that the Popalot sisters will make it to our place this year to serenade us. We will however do the rest of the meal in the traditional Bulgarian manner – even if the singers fail to appear.)
We have followed one Cunnington-Smythe travelling tradition and decorated a Christmas chair. Santa isn’t big in Bulgaria, but nor are Christmas trees. Instead people have been carefully selecting bare twigs/branches with great care – these sold by farmers on the street and all appear to be of the same species and are usually less than one metre tall. Some are being sold in the main market already decorated with strings of lollies or popcorn. It is also noticible that the streets and parks are emptying, Christmas Eve is a family occasion of great significance in this part of Europe.
Our Bulgarian Christmas Eve will be spent preparing food, sharing a meal with Mitch and Grace, and playing cards. Where is Marguerite when I need her in order to escape from the card table? It will be spent thinking especially of Nat, who again is at her school preparing a meal to be shared with the most needy of her families. It will be spent thinking family and friends at home. And it will be spent wondering if the Popalot Brothers (pictured below) might sing for us if the sisters can’t make it to our Chrismas Dinner……
Traditional Bulgarian Farley
The Popalot Brothers warming up their vocal chords for our Christmas Dinner.
The food hall in Plovdiv’s David Jones is particularly disappointing frankly.
The Very Excellent Adventures of the Cunnington-Smythes 