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      Popular Local Feasts (Folk Feasts and Fairs)

The Festival of the Rose:
The Festival of the Rose is one of the most remarkable
events in Bulgaria, dedicated to beauty and to flowers,
to Spring and to the fragrance of the priceless Kazanlak
rose. The Festival of the Rose was celebrated for the
first time in 1903, and since then traditionally is being
held during the first weekend of June. That is the season
when the gentle attar-yielding Kazanlak rose comes to bloom,
filling the air with its scent. Nowadays the Festival of the Rose has evolved
into an international event, at which thousands of tourists and guests of the
town are entertained.

The International folk festival (It is a part of The Festival of the Rose)
For five days folk groups from the Balkans countries represent traditional
costumes, dances and customs.

Days of Thracian Culture:
2-3 September: a blend of theatre, archaeology and tourism.


      History

Who are the Thracians ?
They inhabited the lands extending from contemporary Russia to Asia
Minor, and were divided into tribes which often went to war against each
other. The Thracians were a tall and slender race with golden or copper-
coloured hair, milk-white skin and blue eyes. Tattoos reproducing religious
symbols and carried primarily by the females were typical of this people.
Jewelry of unsurpassed exquisiteness and ornamentality were the characteristic male accessory. The husband was the master of the Thracian family, and wives were purchased from their parents in exchange for money or property. The Thracians were polygamous, but only the favourite spouse of the dignitary
had the honour to be buried with him and to accompany him on the journey
to his immortal life.

The Odrysae - the Lords of Southern Thrace
The most powerful tribe which emerged to dominate the Valley of Kazanlak
was called Odrysae. New evidence of their grandeur are constantly discovered,
but the most remarkable are the plastic portraits of Seuth III himself, and his
earlier predecessor Teres. During the reign of the mightiest monarch of the
Odrysae Kingdom - Seuth III, the city of Seuthopolis, which he had founded (nowadays lying submerged under the waters of Koprinka artificial lake), had emerged as the main center. Seuthopolis, which was approximately of the size of the central part of contemporary Kazanlak, was protected by battlements with towers and two gates, and contained numerous temples.

Beliefs of the Thracians:
The god of vine and joy - Dionysus, and Helios, the sun-god were worshiped.
But the holiest deity was the Great Mother-Goddess, who incarnated the earth
and the life. In later epochs Orphism - faith in immortality of the soul - emerged. Thus after the death of Seuth III his statue was ritually beheaded, and the head
was buried separately from the remainder of the statue; the material effigy was 'sacrificed' in order that the immortality of the soul was ensured, and the king
could proceed on his path toward immortality.

Craftsmanship of the Ancients
The Thracians lived mainly from agriculture and husbandry, but they also
were skilful in ore extraction, metal processing and commerce. Archaeological
finds reveal that there were no better jewelers than they in these lands. Their ornaments on arms and on riding appliqu?s, as well as accessories for religious rituals and rites are of unsurpassed exquisiteness and creative inspiration.