2024 / 1 – Bulgarian Gardeners in Hungary – Migrations and Cultural Interactions. Edited by Nikolay Vukov

The thematic issue aims to present insufficiently explored aspects of migrations and cultural interactions between Hungary and Bulgaria, with special attention to the role of Bulgarian gardeners since the end of the 19th century in the transfer of cultural models between the two states. The journal issue includes articles from Bulgarian and Hungarian anthropologists and historians studying the impact that Bulgarian immigrant groups have exercised on the social and cultural life in Hungary, as well as the influence that the cultural practices transferred back from Hungary to Bulgaria had on Bulgarian society in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. On the basis of new explorations and materials, the issue will present articles about the Bulgarian gardeners in Southern Hungary, their cultural interactions with the Hungarian society, the influence of Bulgarian gardeners on the agricultural movements in Hungary in the beginning of the 20th century, the Bulgarian school in Budapest and its role in the maintenance of cultural heritage abroad, contemporary representations of cultural memory about the Bulgarian gardeners in Hungary. The issue is with a wide thematic and interdisciplinary horizon and will be of interest for a wide circles of readers interested in the cultural contacts and mutual influences between Hungary and Bulgaria from the end of the 19th century until today.

2024 / 2

The articles in this issue are dedicated to an examination of the diverse practices and forms of everyday culture and holidays in traditional and modern contexts.
The first article reviews the symbolism and manifestations of the plot about a maiden with cut-off hands, which were miraculously recovered. It also advocates the idea that this motif originated as an element of archaic initiation practices.
In the following paper is presented the motif "A virgin rescues Malta" along with an analysis of the research conducted on it and an examination of the various opinions surrounding it.
The processes of evaluation of emigrant gardening as local heritage in two “gardening villages” are outlined in detail.
Thе next article reviews the images about nature in the Web 2.0 are reviewed in the context of the new modes of environmental preservation, putting at the fore the relationship between the Web and the human being.
The concept of motherland is examined from a variety of perspectives in the context of contemporary migration movements, with particular attention paid to the connections forged and the images of the motherland held by Bulgarian expatriates.
The activities of the inhabitants of a particular Bulgarian municipality with regard to the socialisation of immovable religious heritage of local importance are presented together with their visions for its use as a tourist product. At the same time, the influence of this heritage on their religious identity is studied.

2024 / 3 – Sights and Directions. Edited by Valentina Ganeva-Raycheva, Valentin Voskresenski

The issue presents the research of PhD students from the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The articles are original scholarly works on a range of themes, including ethnomusicology, ethnochoreology, sociolinguistics, migration studies, studies of religious beliefs and concepts, and the examination of spiritual teachings and contemporary healing practices.
The content presents new perspectives on the processes of transformation and community influence in the music of Kosovar Albanians in the period of the 1990s
The tendencies of europeanization, archaization, folklorization and lexical changes in the Bulgarian language are outlined as present on the pages of Tsarigradski vestnik (1848–1862).
The continuation of the analysis of the motif "A virgin rescues Malta" is also included – this time with a particular emphasis on the circumstances of its creation and on the folk tradition that facilitated its survival in the Balkan context.
The images and concepts pertaining to menstruation in the biblical texts and plots, along with their interpretations by church authorities are followed, while the norms in this respect are analysed.
Various information about folk dancing in Sbornik za narodni umotvoreniya, nauka i knizhnina (from volume I to volume XXI) is presented as a resource for future ethnochoreological research.
Furthermore, the issue offers the findings of a fieldwork study on the Italians in Bulgaria, encompassing their social profiles, intercultural communication, and the conditions and challenges associated with residing in their country of immigration.
Last but not least, the dissemination in Bulgaria of the generic therapy of rodonavtica, which combines elements of traditional rites, family constellations, ancestor veneration and different ritual acts or practices is studied. The issue is interdisciplinary in nature and will be of interest to those focused on different problems of traditional and contemporary culture, as well as on historical and contemporary cultural interrelations in Bulgaria or abroad.