Bulgarian Folklore

Generally, the Bulgarian folklore is an aspect of a tradition associated with the agrarian times of society and involving forms of artistic creativity. As such can be described the following: bulgarian music and folk art, bulgarian songs and dances mostly, the oral tradition in all its various forms - from popular bulgarian folk tales to proverbs and sayings - and the plastic art, which is found in embroidery, stone work, wood-carving, figures shaped on bread, etc. As a whole, this folk art developed until the 2nd half of the 19th century and it has been regarded by the Bulgarian scholars as the classical folklore of the Bulgarian people who have their specific place in the Balkan and European cultural tradition. From the middle of the 19th century on there began a change in the Bulgarian cultural model represented by the establishment of an autonomous artistic culture - literature, music, theatre, etc. During its development, this new model has created a constant interest in folklore. Since then other forms of folk art have appeared and developed in Bulgaria, and they have been most generally connected with the urban tradition of a modern society.

The Bulgarian folk tales are mainly inspired by the interest in the magic, the contact with the everyday life events, confronting the rich and the poor, the clever and the fool, as well as by the presence of the Bulgarian humor.

The musical expression of the Bulgarian culture has its regional characteristics. One can distinguish between the Rhodope song and the Thracian song, the Shopp song, the Macedonian song, etc. and, at the same time - the specific Bulgarian two-voice songs, the phenomenon of irregular beats, etc.

One can find in Bulgaria the major research centre in the field of Bulgarian folklore is the Institute of Folklore at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Lectures in this field are read in all philological departments of the Bulgarian universities, in the higher schools of music, and at the National Academy of Theatre and Cinema Art.