Sts Constantine and Helena and Nestinarstvo (fire-dancing)
21 May 2026 — The drum beats, the embers glow. Be well!, the embers glow. Be well!
On 21 May the Church honours the holy Equals-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helena. On this day, in the Strandzha mountains, today mainly in the village of Bulgari, the old custom of Nestinarstvo is kept. To the sound of a drum and bagpipe, the fire-dancers (nestinari), carrying the icons of the saints, move in rhythm and step barefoot on glowing embers without harm. For them it is a deep spiritual experience and an act of faith, not a show. The rite blends Christian belief with much older folk ideas about fire and the sun. During the day there is a village gathering and a procession with the icons to the ayazmo, a holy spring. In the afternoon a large fire is lit, and when it has burned down to embers, the fire-dancers step into it in the evening. Nestinarstvo is inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (2009, as “Nestinarstvo, messages from the past: the Panagyr of Saints Constantine and Helena in the village of Bulgari”). The date is fixed in the calendar, and the fire echoes the strength of the sun in late spring, when days are long and bright.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of bright dots and connected lines, like a constellation, slowly gliding across the sky: a woman in a long dress with arms gently raised, stepping softly over a glowing bed of small warm-silver points, while a few faint dots pulse around her like the beat of a drum
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