Paper short abstract:

The presentations follows the development of the symbolism and changes in axiological systems of the ritual meals on major winter feasts (Christmas, New Year, Epiphany) in Bulgaria and other Balkan countries in patriarchal rural and modern urban cultural settings.

Paper long abstract:

The presentations follows the development of the symbolism and changes in axiological systems of the ritual meals held on major winter feasts (Christmas, New Year, Epiphany) in Bulgaria and some other Balkan countries in patriarchal rural and modern urban cultural settings. Traditionally the festive food alludes to Christian and pre-Christian pagan content of the holidays and is based on the intention of providing better crops, weather conditions, health and prosperity for all the members of the family, which are the vital values of any society. The very essence of the three calendric meals is the ritual bread as an important object in various types of activity. The bread symbolically combines veneration of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, Nativity, God, but also, depending on the region (in the North-West of Bulgaria, parts of Serbia), it is dedicated to various agricultural products and cattle. While in the past and occasionally nowadays in the most rustic provinces the traditional values of the ritual loaves are preserved, in the urban settings the axiological parameters change. Depending on the context and location the bread and the festive meal is seen as family or community entertainment (especially the New Year's one, 'St Basil's bread' for fortune-telling), as cultural heritage. as an issue of national identification, touristic attraction and local branding.

The paper is based on my own field research, archive and published sources and on the publications on the Internet.