Work, Play and Festivity

Precise measurement of the hours mattered little to most people. There is no evidence that Bulgarian towns possessed mechanical clocks like those appearing in Western Europe by the fourteenth century. The day was followed by the movement of the sun, sometimes with the help of a kopralya—a long staff or ox-goad whose shadow provided a reference. At night, time was judged by the crowing of cocks. The hours before midnight were considered late night, while the period after it was an ominous “evil time” in which hostile supernatural forces were active. People also distinguished between favourable and unfavourable days and hours. Certain household tasks were avoided on “bad” days, although the details survive more clearly in later folklore than in medieval evidence.

The overwhelming majority of the population lived from the land. Even towns such as Tarnovo, Cherven, and Lovech remained closely connected with farming and animal husbandry. Some peasants were subject to boyars, churches, and monasteries, while others depended directly on the ruler. There is not enough evidence to calculate the exact proportions of these groups. By the end of the fourteenth century, royal peasants probably still formed a substantial share—perhaps around one quarter of the population—but this is an estimate rather than firm statistical knowledge.

Field work began at dawn and continued until evening. Literary texts described this rhythm as working “from darkness to darkness,” while manuscript illustrations show poorly clothed ploughmen bent over wooden ards. The principal source of draught power was a pair of oxen; even some tax assessments were related to the area such a team could cultivate. New fields were created by trebezh, the burning and clearing of trees and scrub. The ground was then usually ploughed twice, and sometimes three times. Farmers used wooden ards with iron shares, wooden spades fitted with metal tips, picks, and mattocks, examples of which are frequently recovered in excavations.

The two-field system was the most widespread: one part of the land was sown while another lay fallow. Towards the end of the period, a limited three-field rotation appeared in some places, combining winter crops, spring crops, and a resting field. The heavier plough was known but did not replace the traditional ard. Small arable holdings and the importance of vineyards and gardens restricted its advantages. The rising price of barley in the fourteenth century may indicate that horses were being used more frequently in agriculture, although this remains indirect evidence. Property boundaries were marked by balks and stone markers, sometimes carved with crosses or inscriptions.

Agriculture did not make full use of animal manure. Pastures and fields generally occupied separate areas, preventing the natural fertilisation of cultivated ground. Abandoned land was also common: parts of northeastern Bulgaria were sparsely inhabited in the twelfth century, while large tracts between Adrianople and the Sea of Marmara remained uncultivated into the fourteenth. The sower scattered grain by hand, and the task was entrusted to an experienced person capable of distributing it evenly. Weeds were a constant threat and could sometimes overwhelm fields so completely that harvesting became impossible.

Yields were generally low. Gregory Tsamblak's claim that a single seed in the Danubian Plain could produce forty, sixty, or even one hundred grains is celebratory literary exaggeration rather than reliable agricultural statistics. Gardens and vineyards were therefore particularly valuable. A decare of vineyard might be worth many times as much as the same area planted with wheat. Success depended almost entirely on the weather. Divinatory and apocryphal writings repeatedly predicted droughts, icy winters, wet summers, locusts, and livestock epidemics, while reports of abundance were much less common.

The end of the fourteenth century was marked by severe food crises. Gregory Tsamblak described a drought in which the soil cracked and fields came to resemble beaten roads. He attributed the rain that followed to the prayers of Patriarch Euthymius, but such deliverance did not always come. A major famine is recorded in 1371, and in 1392 food shortages north of the Balkan Mountains forced part of the population to seek refuge in Wallachia. The recurring prophecy that “there will be great famine in the land of the Bulgarians” reflected a genuine and repeated danger.

Animal husbandry was no less important than cultivation. People raised cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs, with small livestock probably outnumbering cattle by about five to one. Some herds grazed freely in the mountains, reducing the cost of keeping them. Shepherding was commonly performed by children and poor people; before becoming ruler, Ivaylo tended other people's pigs for payment. Manuscript illustrations show young herders with a pipe or small knife and the characteristic decorated shepherd's bag. There are no reliable figures for the productivity of local animals. Cows were valued chiefly for breeding and milk and were less often harnessed alongside oxen.

Much of what was produced went towards taxes and compulsory services. The sources distinguish royal, seigneurial, and ecclesiastical dues, including tithes on grain, wine, sheep, pigs, bee products, and other goods. Collectors were supplied with food and fodder—bread, meat, cheese, poultry, and grain for animals. In the thirteenth century, a cleric of the Archbishopric of Ohrid holding one zeugar of land—an agricultural unit associated with a pair of draught animals—might owe wheat, barley, lambs, processed flax, and wax. In addition came angaria, or unpaid compulsory labour. It included work on lordly estates, the building and maintenance of fortresses, roads, bridges, and prisons, and sometimes guard duty. Water resources were also closely controlled, especially by monasteries. Watermills were important installations; seven are recorded near Niš at the end of the twelfth century.

Urban work was far more varied. Written records name more than sixty crafts, including ironworking, coppersmithing, pottery, jewellery, stonecutting, and construction. A charter of Ivan Alexander collectively calls craftsmen tekhnitari, meaning people with specialised skills. Entire manufacturing quarters have been excavated at Tsarevets, Cherven, Lovech, and Kaliakra. Objects of standardised form show that some goods were produced in series for the market. Certain monasteries were also centres of production: a large quantity of unworked iron was found near the Church of the Forty Holy Martyrs in Tarnovo. The concentration of craftsmen in particular neighbourhoods may indicate professional associations, but there is no direct proof of formally organised guilds.

Workshops were often housed in light structures or beneath shelters and therefore rarely leave clear archaeological remains. The murals of the Zemen church depict a smithy with a master, apprentice, journeymen, furnace, leather bellows, tongs, hammers, and anvil. The tools are rendered convincingly, although the smiths' festive clothing is plainly an artistic convention. Some workshops also served as shops; a room at Tsarevets was covered with the remains of vessels probably once displayed for sale. Tarnovo's goldsmiths and the makers of sgraffito pottery attained particularly high standards. Sgraffito vessels were decorated by scratching designs into a pale surface layer and covering them with coloured glaze.

Unusual two-part ceramic vessels from Hotnitsa and Dedovo have been interpreted as alchemical equipment. Each has a tube curving along the body of the pot and a capacity of about two litres. A connection with distillation is possible, but there is no written evidence that Bulgarians of this period produced rakia. Similar vessels from Russia and Armenia have been associated with alchemy, making that explanation plausible here as well. It remains impossible to determine exactly what substances were processed in them or whether they were truly used in attempts to manufacture gold.

Trade connected workshops and farms with local and international markets. Middlemen known as targari frequented urban markets, fairs, and gatherings near monasteries. The fair at the Monastery of St George the Swift near Skopje lasted eight days and attracted visitors from a wide area. Ivan Asen II granted rights to Ragusan merchants, who organised caravan transport. Venetians and Genoese operated in the Black Sea ports. Under Theodore Svetoslav, a conflict with Genoa caused relations to be broken off, while Ivan Alexander later granted substantial privileges to Venice. The Genoese obtained especially favourable terms in the Despotate of Dobruja. Trade was therefore important, but it depended on royal treaties, customs dues, and the political rivalry of the maritime republics.

The festive calendar combined Christian observances with much older beliefs. Church writings condemned “demonic dances” and “defiled mysteries” without always explaining what actually took place. A figure scratched onto a thirteenth-century vessel from Tsarevets wears a triangular hat and carries a drum, resembling a shaman performing a ritual dance; comparable images appear in the Church of St Peter and St Paul. Their interpretation is not entirely secure, but they show that imagery outside official Christian culture remained recognisable. A particularly persistent summer gathering took place near a monastery in Tarnovo's Holy Mountain. Gregory Tsamblak described it as an occasion for sexual licence, and Patriarch Euthymius prohibited it. The festival probably included rites connected with fertility, but its details are known almost entirely through hostile ecclesiastical accounts.

The recurring duration of eight days is striking. The summer gathering at Tarnovo, the fair near Skopje, and the wedding of the heir Michael Asen all lasted this long. It is uncertain whether this preserved a pre-Christian calendrical pattern or merely represented a practical extension of a major celebration. Springtime rusalii rites were associated with supernatural maidens, the dead, and the renewal of nature. Theodore Balsamon recorded the term in the late twelfth century. In the southwestern lands, as Demetrios Chomatenos reported, groups of young people toured villages after Pentecost, dancing and performing pantomimes. Households were expected to reward them, and refusal sometimes led to fighting. A charter of Constantine Asen mentions a “Vila's Well” near Prilep, illustrating the persistence of belief in the vila or samovila, a supernatural female being of the wild.

The most regularly celebrated occasions were the patronal feasts of individual churches. They provided opportunities for communal meals, courtship, music, and prolonged circle dances. Nikephoros Gregoras observed such festivities near Strumitsa. The murals in Hreljo's Tower at the Rila Monastery show eight men divided into two facing groups of four and holding one another by the waist. They dance in a meadow, wearing short, brightly coloured festive shirts. It is unclear whether the scene represents a circle dance or a form of the rachenitsa. A pottery fragment from Hotnitsa adds a dancing man and woman, probably belonging to a larger mixed group. Their unusual facial bands may suggest a ritual performance, but the image is too incomplete for certainty.

The ensemble in Hreljo's Tower consists of five musicians: two play a lute and cymbals, while the others use a long trumpet, a drum, and castanets. No bagpipe appears. This may mean that the instrument was not yet widespread, but its absence from a single scene is insufficient proof. Heroic songs were also performed at festivals. Nikephoros Gregoras heard songs near Strumitsa about famous men of the past; the voices echoing from the mountains reminded him of an ancient chorus. Professional singers usually accompanied themselves on the gusla or a related string instrument. Such itinerant musicians preserved historical memory through song. A document of 1353 names two performers, Prede the Musician and Hurse the Blind. The later Dalmatian bugarštice—long epic songs in a distinctive metre—probably continued a related Bulgarian tradition.

Audiences were also entertained by wrestlers, acrobats, animal handlers, and storytellers. Graffiti in Tarnovo's Church of St Peter and St Paul show tightrope walkers balancing with long poles. Chroniclers of the Third Crusade described a Plovdiv performer who carried a snake beneath his clothing. Drunken German knights mistook his act for sinister sorcery and killed him. A sgraffito vessel from Tsarevets likewise depicts a man with a snake around his neck, suggesting that such performances were familiar. Itinerant storytellers circulated marvellous tales of magicians, samovilas, and supernatural beings. The Church rejected them as false stories, but repeated prohibitions reveal their popularity rather than their disappearance.

A festival offered poor people a rare opportunity to eat their fill and drink freely. The words for “treating others to drink” and “drinking a health” are attested in medieval Bulgarian literature, while moralising texts condemn a succession of toasts ending in madness and sorrow. Wine was stored in skins and flasks and appears to have been predominantly red. Rosehips were sometimes added to warmed wine for their aroma. Advice also circulated on removing added water by filtering the mixture through bread or a sponge. An old custom required a horseman drinking “like a hero” to pour the first cup over his horse's mane. Ecclesiastical calls for moderation plainly failed to eliminate competitive drinking and repeated toasts.

For the ruler and the boyars, hunting was the most prestigious recreation, regarded as a peacetime test of martial ability. Royal officials known as psari, kuchkari, and kraguyari raised and trained hunting dogs and falcons. Royal charters place them high among provincial officers. The forests were rich in deer, boar, bears, and other game. Manuel I Komnenos hunted in the sparsely settled lands of northeastern Bulgaria, where numerous wild boar and bears were reported. Animal bones from Tarnovo and hunting graffiti confirm an interest in large game. A medieval saint's life also mentions a lion, but such a text is insufficient to prove that wild lions survived in Bulgaria. The lion appearing on coins, shields, and heraldic devices under Ivan Shishman was primarily symbolic.

Hunters pursued deer on horseback and cast spears, while boar were sometimes confronted on foot with a sword. A royal hunt was a noisy spectacle of riders, horns, dogs, and a large retinue, but for peasants it could mean weeks of compulsory labour driving animals towards the hunters. Specially reserved hunting grounds were designated as “hunting places for beasts.” Ivan Asen II was especially devoted to the pursuit: in 1236 he departed before Epiphany and returned only after Easter, more than four months later. Hunting also brought real dangers. Constantine Asen fell from his horse and broke his leg, leaving him permanently disabled, while Michael II Asen was murdered in a court conspiracy during a hunt near Tarnovo.

Court festivals publicly displayed royal dignity. Christmas celebrations were particularly splendid; in 1260 Constantine Asen detained a Byzantine embassy in Tarnovo so that it could witness them. Indirect evidence suggests that the royal insignia may have been kept in a major church of the capital and ceremonially presented to the ruler by the patriarch. A gilded spearhead from the Church of the Forty Holy Martyrs may have belonged to such a sacred emblem. A reconstruction in which the ruler processed from the church to Tsarevets is plausible, but no surviving account describes it directly.

Royal weddings and visits by foreign monarchs provided occasions for days of feasting. In 1338 the marriage of Michael Asen, son and heir of Ivan Alexander, to Maria, daughter of Andronikos III, was celebrated for eight days near Adrianople with constant visits and lavish meals. Ivan Asen II's marriage in 1237 to Irene, daughter of Theodore Komnenos, was overshadowed by the Church's refusal to recognise it, but an anonymous poet praised the couple as sun and moon. The Serbian king Vladislav visited Tarnovo to request the relics of St Sava and acknowledge Ivan Asen II's authority. Milutin was later welcomed with a rich banquet by Theodore Svetoslav. Such meetings combined diplomacy, ceremony, gifts, and prolonged toasting.

In their leisure time, aristocrats watched brutal boxing matches and played dice, tables, and chess. In 1241 the Hungarian king sent Ivan Asen II ten pairs of boxing gloves. Iron fittings could be attached to the leather, and a bout sometimes ended in death. Bone and clay dice, together with gaming counters, have been found at Tsarevets. The proverb “more faithless than a die” expressed distrust of gambling fortune. Chess had been known since the time of John the Exarch, although no securely dated pieces from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries have yet been identified. A Byzantine circular board and rules differing from those of modern chess may have been used, but actual Bulgarian practice remains poorly documented.