Cheesefare Sunday and the Kukeri
22 February 2026 · movable holiday — Jingle-jingle! Forgive me, friends – and may the year be fruitful!
Cheesefare Sunday is the last Sunday before the Orthodox Easter Lent. In Bulgaria it is also called Forgiveness Sunday: in the evening people ask each other for forgiveness and answer, “May God forgive.” During the final week of eating dairy, people enjoy cheese, eggs and milk, and Lent begins the next day. A beloved custom is “hamkane”: a piece of halva or a boiled egg hangs on a string, is swung about, and everyone tries to bite it without using their hands. Bonfires are lit too, and young people jump over them. The kukeri are masked men in fur coats, with large bells and fearsome masks. With dancing and loud bell-ringing they drive away evil spirits and call for fertility and health. Kukeri games are held at different times in different regions, often around this period. The date moves with Orthodox Easter – the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox, both reckoned by the old (Julian) calendar, tying the folk calendar to the sky.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure made of luminous dots and thin connecting lines, like a constellation, shaped as a tall-masked kuker in a shaggy fur coat with big bells at the waist
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