Mummerland: balkan mysteries

... One thing is quite clear: even today there is no synonimous answer - only versions and assumptions. The undisclosed secrets remain alluring even today. However, we will try to change this and understand how and where this phenomenon was formed, where its first native country was, without claiming anything and without proposing new versions of the origin of such a unique phenomenon. It's just an attempt to announce the existing interesting versions. If the reincarnation can take us from the boring routine to the world of magic and mysticism, then why don t we make, though an imaginary but fascinating journey on the roads that where carried out more than a millennium ago by masked kukeri, symbols of ritual reincarnations on the eve of New Year, Christmas and Maslenitsa; try to solve the mystery of their magical actions and discover the significance and presence of this ritual in modern life? It is obvious, that the mystery of the Bulgarian kukeri, the Kukeri games, have ancient, pre - Christian roots. The other question is, where are these roots from? And right here begins the most interesting part. Because in our attempt to answer this question, we will have to make a virtual journey in the time and the space - in ancient India, Thrace, Egypt, Greece, Rome, in order to understand the Indian mythology and religion, the cosmological systems of ancient Egypt and the cult of Osiris, the Greek feasts related to the cult of god Dionysus (Antisthera), the Roman feasts- masquerades, the Thracian heritage, the pagan beliefs of Bulgarians and Slavs...