Kalushars (or rusalias) are the actors in the ritual held during the rusalian week (particularly on Sunday) in North Bulgaria or during the so-called Dirty Days [1] in Macedonia. Bulgarian specialists have known about the ritual for more than a century and a half and Georgi S. Rakovski is the first to mention it. He was followed by Ivan Basanovich, Ivan Shishmanov, Mihail Arnaudov, etc. No matter whether they mention the summer rusalias (kalushars), described by Dimitar Marinov, or the winter rusalias, described by Kuzman Shapkarev, all researchers [2] agree that the ritual traces its roots back to ancient times, leading as to Thracian-Roman-Greek cults like the ancient Rosalia where probably the name came from.
(Rusalias from Gevgelija district, 1941)
The kalushar group had to consist of uneven number of young or mature men, usually seven, with a leader called vataff who was not only leading the group but was also known to possess hypnotist or shaman skills. This position was heritable, passed on by the father to his son. But most of all, the vataff had his power due to the fact that in those groups a strict military discipline was demanded or as K. Shapkarev noted, rusalian groups recreated “the military structure and discipline of our great ancestors”. This is confirmed by some other elements of the kalushar organization: every group had its flag; in the initiating process the new member needed to take an oath; all of them were armed with sticks; when two groups met, they fought till blood was shed, thus today we find many toponyms like rusalian graveyard, tracing stories of fights and death.
In some groups, like those in the western parts of North Bulgaria (in the area of Lom, Byala Slatina, etc.), there were only vataffs, while in others in the east (around Nikopol) there was another important role in the ritual – the one of the mute (or “mut” as he is called here).
Rusalian dances continued a whole week, also called Samodivska (fairy), starting after Christian Pentecost. Kalushars danced for health and fertility or for the sick with rusalian or samodivian disease to be cured, even though the ancient cults with which the specialists are trying to make a connection were mainly aimed for the dead.
People believed that at this time of the year the rusaliikas (also known as rusari, rusalki) emerged and they made people ill with the disease in question. The personalized female demons resembled in temper the samodivas and were actually souls of young drowned women or women in labour who flew in the shape of white butterflies above Danube during the week. It was believed that if someone got sick during this week they would never recover. It was said that such a person was “hit”, “walked over”, “beaten” by the rusaliikas or that they had bad spell on or would stay forever insane. That is why there were a number of taboos to be followed.
Thus, the kalushars came along. They were not only wearing white clothes, but also were adorned with and brought along all kinds of herbs and equipment. Their sticks were made of hazelbush, sycamore or cornel-tree all of which were thought to possess healing or magical powers to keep the evil spirits away. The flag was made of white linen cloth stitched in the corners with herbs like iris, melilot, gentiana, artemisia, dictamnus, etc. A bouquet of these herbs and few cloves of garlic were put on the top of the flag and on the waist-bands or on the hats of the kalushars. But usually the healing was performed as ritual dance, including music, fast rhythm, specific yells and rattling with spurs on the dancers’ feet.
“First they danced calmly, wrote Mihail Arnaudov in his study “Rusalias and kalushars”, then their steps got faster; they took the rug with the ill in it and threw him up; the vataff walked in the circle, rubbed vinegar on the ill, lowered the flag upon him, blew upon him in four directions, gave him some vinegar to drink and stepped back.” Then the kalushars jumped over the ill and yelled, they danced around the pot of water with healing herbs in it and the vataff uttered his spell.
When the rhythm of music and dance were fastest it was like the kalushars hovered above the ground. The vataff gave a cue and they broke the pot placed next to the ill’s head so he’d get better. The latter got up and run. In some villages this would end the ritual but in others one or two of the kalushars fainted as they took in the disease, so the other kalushars had to wake them up with dances, going this time the other way around, new spells followed by the vataff.
After they’d finished dancing in theirs and the neighbouring villages, the kalushars went back home, feasted the whole night and divided the gifts and money they gathered. After the vataff freed the others from the oath and took or destroyed the ritual equipment, everyone went back to their daily routine till the next Rusalian Sunday.
Kalush is practiced also on the other side of Danube in Romania where the ritual is linked to the yeli (also known as shoymane, zane, etc) who are female demons just like our samodivas. According to Mircea Eliade the ritual is too complex and its origin could not be found in a single source and “undoubtedly is a composite one”. However, this doesn’t stand on the way of Romanian researchers to look for ancient traces and the uniqueness of the ritual incorporating it in their national identity.
Even at the first folklore festival in 1897 the newly-formed Romanian groups performed mainly kalush – the spectacular ritual directly linked to the culture of ancient Dacia and Rome, spread in Walachia, Moldova, Transylvania, as Iliya Iliev wrote in his PhD thesis “Rusalias and Kalushars: Historical Ethnology of a Ritual”. After World War II, he explained, kalush became one of the main elements in the repertoire of the Romanian network of cultural centers practicing authentic folklore in the whole country.
The latter is one of the reasons why it is still preserved to this day and despite its theatrical modern performance kalush has become an intrinsic part of the Romanian ethos. In 2008 it even entered the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
(Romanian Kalushars, 1910)
(Romanian Kalushars, 1910)
[1] The period between Christmas and Epiphany.
[2] Some specialists consider it the same celebration that took place at two different periods, others believe it is a composite ritual which can be observed everywhere in Southeast Europe.
