The Dirty Days

December, and especially late December is not the time for gardening. For starters, it’s usually too cold to do anything of value in the garden or, as it is right now, way too wet to work soil. Also, late December is festive season in Bulgaria as it is in so many parts of the world, and we just don’t really feel like working. Finally, in local folk mythology, late December — and early January — is the period of the Dirty Days. During the Dirty Days, you stay home and keep to yourself.

The Dirty Days usually span December 24 to January 6th, or in other words from Christmas Eve to Epiphany. Another name for that period is the Unbaptised Days, just to make the hint clearer. In local folk belief, during this period the sky turns into a riddle, as in, the matter separation tool, and this world and the next seep into each other. People in the West have the one single night before Halloween to fear the invasion of the demons and take precautions. We’ve got a fortnight and then some.

The Dirty Days are the period when chaos replaces order. It is when demons descend on the earth and start looking for people to ride, torture and kill. It’s the time of the vampires and the karakondzhuls — a special regional sort of a demon who Irina thought was a pretty lame character used to scare kinds with, but it turned out to be a rather ghastly creature who kills travellers too reckless to take shelter before nightfall in really cruel ways. The name is the only funny thing about these monsters.

Getting home by nightfall was one of the rules followed during the Dirty Days. Not doing some otherwise usual chores is another. Women, for instance, did not do laundry and did not sеw, knit or embroider. The ashes in the fireplace were not taken out of the house — ashes have magical powers in local folk mythology and were believed to represent a form of defence against the dark forces. Those forces were so dark, it was really bad luck to be born between December 24 and January 6.

Those who did get born during the Dirty Days were believed to turn into vampires after their death. Clearly, they were not the most popular ones in the village. But even those who got conceived during the Dirty Days were out of luck with the post-mortem transformation, so sex was another thing people abstained from during the period, along with getting married and visiting dead relatives at the cemetery. And you never, ever responded to someone calling your name from outside at night. That someone was bound to be a karakondzhul.

There were ways to protect yourself and your home from supernatural demonic invasion during the Dirty Days. Garlic was one form of protection. People carried a clove on them at all times during the dangerous period. In fact, they didn’t just carry it, they sewed it into their clothes to make sure it stays there, especially if they had to travel.

Various herbs were placed around the house to act as a seal against vampires and the creatures that are even scarier than the karakondzhul: the navi, or the evil spirits of children who had died before being baptised. Bulgarian folklore is really creative in the horror department. Juniper was one such herb. Hawthorn was another, and here’s a fun fact about hawthorn: it was used to repel vampires, including by piercing their bodies with a stake or even a stick made from that shrub.

Once January 6th and Epiphany came, it was game over for the demons who got back to where they belonged. The village exhaled after a fortnight of rest and fear, the garlic cloves were maybe removed from the coats, and all the ashes collected during the Dirty Days could be spread around the garden as natural potassium fertiliser, only they weren’t because they were used as a cure for various ailments.

Happy holidays to all!