The sky over Bulgaria

Vlastsi and the Brood Hen: the Pleiades (M45) in Bulgaria

The Pleiades are a small, easily recognised group of stars in Taurus. Bulgarian tradition knows them by many names: Vlasi, Vlasci, Kvachkata s pilentsata (“the brood hen with her chicks”), Stozhari. Astronomers call them the open star cluster M45 (Messier 45).

A small group with many names

Look up at the winter sky and you may notice a tiny flock of pale stars huddled close together. These are the Pleiades. In Bulgarian folk tradition they never had just one name. The Rechnik na narodnata duhovna kultura na balgarite (“Dictionary of the Folk Spiritual Culture of the Bulgarians”) lists many: Vlasi, Vlasci, Vlashkovi, Vlashkovtsi, Kvachka s piltsi (“brood hen with chicks”), Kokoshkata s pilentsata (“the hen with her chicks”), Klonkata, Klovachkata, Krivi vlasi, Krivolitsi, Lachkovete and Stozhari. Other collected texts add Kokoshka (“hen”) and Kvachka s piltsite (“the brood hen with the chicks”). The form “Vlashitsi” is sometimes used, but we did not find it in the dictionaries and collections we checked. So we use the attested forms Vlasi and Vlasci here.

The hen and her chicks

The most common image is a hen with her chicks. Angel Bonov, in his book on constellation myths, describes the brightest star of the cluster as the hen and the fainter stars around it as six chicks. In his words, they flicker as if pecking millet grains. Other records speak of six, seven or eight chicks. It is a familiar farmyard scene, and it is easy to see in the sky even today.

Vlasci, outlaws and ploughmen

A second group of names comes from star stories. Ancho Kaloyanov refers to recorded folklore (SbNU 30). In it, the Vlahche (“little Vlach”) is the faintest star, which “stole away” from the Vlastsi. For this reason the Vlasci are also called Haiduti (“outlaws”). In this folk picture, the Vlasci “walk ahead of the Ploughmen”, that is, ahead of Orion, which is also called Ralitsata (a plough with oxen and a ploughman behind). See also Orion.

Kaloyanov offers an interpretation too. He says that variants of one ballad split into two groups by the number of brothers, seven or five. He links these groups to the regions where the Pleiades are called Vlasci (seven) and Kvachka s pilentsa (five). That is his hypothesis about how sky names and folk songs relate. It is not an established fact.

When they vanish and return

The folk calendar ties the Pleiades to the farming year. Wikipedia and a published collection called “Stars and Folk Belief” say the Kvachka is not seen between Gergyovden (St George’s Day) and Letni Todorovden (Summer St Theodore’s Day). During that time she is said to lie down somewhere to hatch her eggs. The sources differ on the details, though. One text states the opposite: that the group appears from Todorovden to Gergyovden. So the honest summary is that Bulgarian tradition tracks the cluster’s disappearance and return by the saints’ calendar, and the exact wording varies. One popular overview adds that Bulgarians used the Kvachka to tell the time at night and the start of sowing. We found no scholarly publication to confirm this.

Astronomy gives a sensible explanation. The cluster lies in Taurus and is lost in the Sun’s glare during spring and early summer. It is best seen in autumn and winter, when it is high in the evening sky. The folk calendar and the sky agree. For other folk names, see Narodni imena na zvezdite (“Folk names of the stars”).

What astronomers call M45

The Pleiades are an open star cluster (a group of stars born together from one cloud of gas and dust). In Messier’s catalogue they are number 45, M45. They lie in the constellation Taurus. (Zodia Telets, the astrological sign, is a different thing from the constellation.) Their combined brightness is about magnitude 1.6, and they span about four times the apparent diameter of the full Moon.

Most people see 6–7 stars with the naked eye. Under very dark skies up to 14 have been reported. The brightest is called Alcyone. Together with Alcyone, the stars Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Merope, Celaeno and Asterope bear the names of the seven daughters of Atlas from Greek mythology. Binoculars reveal many more stars. Over a thousand members are confirmed.

Estimates of distance and age differ between sources. The Hubble Space Telescope refined the distance to about 440 light-years. The Gaia mission (of the European Space Agency) supports about 136 parsecs (around 444 light-years). The age most often quoted is 100–125 million years. That is very young for stars, compared with the Sun. The cluster is young and its blue stars are hot. The hazy glow around them is interstellar dust reflecting starlight. By current estimates the cluster will disperse in about 250 million years.

How to observe them

Finding the Pleiades takes a few steps. First find Orion, then Aldebaran (the reddish star in Taurus). The cluster lies to the north-west of it. Look slightly to the side of the cluster – faint stars show up better that way. With binoculars you get a lovely view. See Kak da gledame nebeto (“How to watch the sky”) and Binokal ili teleskop (“Binoculars or telescope”). The scientific profile is in Plejadite (“The Pleiades”).

Folk and scientific: two kinds of richness

A folk name is not a “mistake” for science to correct. It is another way of looking. People once watched the sky to mark the seasons and the farming year. Astronomy explains what the stars actually are. The two can complement each other. This article does not deal with astrology. If you wonder how astronomy and astrology differ, read Razlika astronomia-astrologia (“The difference between astronomy and astrology”).

For your next evening outdoors

When you next see that little flock in the sky, think of those who called it the Brood Hen. They had no telescopes, but they watched carefully and gave it lively names.

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