Sema Express Staff Blog

聖イヴァン（ヨアン）の日（イヴァノブデン）

2012-01-07T01:34:00.000-08:00

(1月7日)
1月7日にブルガリア正教会は洗礼者ヨハネの日を祝います。この日は、イヴァン、イヴォ、イヴァ、イヴェリナ、ヨアン、ヨアナ、カロヤン、ヴァニャなどの名前を持つ人の祝う名前の日でもあります。迷信で、この日がたいへん寒ければ、夏には人間や家畜の病気が流行しないと言われています。洗礼者ヨハネはブルガリア正教会で最も尊敬される聖者の1人です。健康を願ってこの日に大人も子供も入浴する習慣があります。1月7日に結婚式の仲人夫婦をドーナッツ型のパン（クラヴァイ）、肉、干しソーセージ（ルカンカ）、ワインなどのお祝いを持って訪問します。

Йордановден（St Jordan's Day 聖ヨルダンの日)

2012-01-06T02:07:00.000-08:00

ブルガリアでは、1月6日は「Йордановден（St Jordan's Day 聖ヨルダンの日）」。Йордан（Jordan ヨルダン）、Йорданка（Jordanka ヨルダンカ）、Богдан（Bogdan ボグダン）、Богомил（Bogomir ボゴミール）、Божидар（Bodjidar ボジダール）さんという名前のつく人々の名前の日です。

　　もともと1月6日は東方正教会的には「公現祭」の日、イエス・キリストがヨルダン川で洗礼者ヨハンから洗礼を受けた日となっています。この日ブルガリアでは面白い習慣があります。朝、街の男性達が川や湖に集まり、教会の司祭が十字架を川や湖に投げ入れ、上半身裸の男性達がその十字架を探しに水の中に飛び込みます。一番最初にその十字架を見つけた人は、この年健康でいられるそうです。
Калофер（Kalofer カロフェル）というカザンラクから30km程離れた街では、そんじょそこらの行事とは違うようです。ただ単に川で十字架探しをするだけではなく、まず2リットルの赤ワインを飲み、十字架を探したあとは、男性達はみんな川の中で円になり、一日中踊るそうです。寒い中大変ですが、これがカロフェルの習慣だそうです。恐るべしカロフェル人。

次に示したリンクをクリックする:
http://bnt.bg/bg/news/view/67361/fejs_tv_kalofersko_myjko_horo_na_bogojavlenie

End of summer season

2010-11-12T08:36:00.000-08:00

These first weeks of November mark the last moments of late autumn. The weather is still warm and nice, but that is about to change by the end of the month and beginning of October.

The summer tourist season might be coming to an end, but we at SEMA Express are still ready to take in requests and make arrangements, any time of the year, any day of the week at any time.

Best choice youth hostel in Sofia

2010-06-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

SEMA Express would like to present a great youth hostel apartment choice for cheap stay in the center of Sofia. The location is perfectly situated for travelers on foot, since the subway station, tram and bus stations are within 2-3 minutes walking distance. Prices vary, depending on season, starting from 10 euro per person, per night.

If you are interested, feel free to send an inquiry to info (at) sema-bg (dot) com.

Here are some pictures:

Kotooshu and Aoiyama

2010-04-23T03:17:00.001-07:00

Kaloyan Mahlyanov /Kotooshu/ posted a great picture on his blog, that we would like to share with you. It's of himself and the other Bulgarian aspiring star in the sumo tournaments - Daniel Ivanov /Aoiyama/. Our hearts go to our Bulgarian sumo champions, hoping for great future successes in the most prestigious dohyos in Japan!

Summer Dance Tour Update

2010-03-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

There are still open spots left for our exciting new Summer Dance 2010 program, so we would like to invite you to take a closer look at the program: click here.

If you would like to participate, kindly download and send us the following registration form, either by fax or by the e-mails listed in the form.

Thank you for reading our blog and taking your time to check out our offers!

March 1st, beginning of spring and Baba Marta

2010-03-01T04:16:00.000-08:00

One of Bulgaria's unique holidays is Baba Marta ("Grandmother March"). Baba Marta was believed to have an easily shifting, volatile temper, smiling at one moment and frowning at another.

So on the 1st of March, in order to appease Baba Marta and soothe her temper, people attach "martenitsa" on their clothes, wrists or necks. Martenitsas were usually made of intertwined red and white threads. Those colors bear a strong symbolic meaning - red stands for blood/life, white stands for purity and happiness. In some parts of Bulgaria, martenitsas are made with a blue thread instead of white - where blue stands for health and longevity.

Nowadays, the creation of martenitsas is intertwined the folkloric figures of Pizho (male) and Penda (female):

The traditional belief states that people must wear martenitsa until they see a stork, swallow or a blooming tree and when they finally do, to tie it on a tree branch. This was believed to bring good luck and health.

Tours planned for summer of 2010

2010-01-26T06:07:00.000-08:00

SEMA Express is proud to present to you an exciting folk dance and folklore tour we have organized along with experienced tour leaders Stefan & Bogdan Vaglarov. Tour length is 8 days and 9 nights, takes place in several of Bulgaria's cities - Sofia, Veliko Tarnovo, Koprivshtitsa and more. Professional folk dance teachers will assist you in learning traditional Bulgarian folk dances, ensuring memories and entertainment to remember this tour by!

For a more detailed information regarding this particular folk dance and folklore tour, feel free to browse the Tours section of our website.

In addition, we are planning to organize more exciting tours, related to the Rose Festival, held in the Valley of Roses. Those festivals attract more and more visitors each year, due to their unique style and tradition, reflecting the lifestyle, culture and soul of the entire Kazanlak region, and are held each year in the beginning of June. Please check back again soon, as we plan to release preliminary information regarding those tours soon!

Good times for Bulgarian sumo

2009-12-01T03:30:00.001-08:00

Ozeki Kotooshu - Kaloyan Mahlyanov performed well during the tournament in Fukuoka, which ended recently. He won 10 matches (one of which against yokozuna Asashoryu), lost 5 and kept his rank as first ozeki.

Young Aoiyama - Daniel Ivanov won in fifth division Jonidan with a perfect score of 7 wins - 0 losses and hasn't known defeat ever since the beginning of his performance in Japan so far.

Petar Stoyanov - "the Chieftain" became an absolute chief of sumo in Bulgaria. We hope that his management would accelerate the production rate of sumo talents in Bulgaria!

Good luck, boys! SEMA Express is with you!

Yordanka Fandakova elected mayor of Sofia

2009-11-15T10:12:00.000-08:00

The results of the mayor elections for Sofia hardly surprised anybody, regardless of the low voting activity in the region (approximately 15%) and the fact that Fandakova became the first female mayor Sofia (all sixty other mayors before her were men).

We remain optimistic that Fandakova would work actively towards solving most of Sofia's problems and that results of her efforts would be visible near the end of her mandate. Her predecessor and current prime-minister of Bulgaria - Boyko Borisov, already did a great job organizing and managing to keep the streets of Sofia frequently and adequately cleaned. The difference is worth mentioning - some of our American visitors from last year, upon coming for a short visit to Sofia this year, noted how much cleaner Sofia seemed to them these days, in comparison to last year.

Kotooshu received the "Stara Planina" order

2009-08-05T04:30:00.000-07:00

The staff of SEMA Express Ltd. would like to extend our congratulations to Kaloyan Mahlyanov - Kotooshu, for officially receiving the "Stara Planina" order last week!

Congratulations also go to his beautiful fiancee, Asako Ando, for capturing the heart of such a big bulgarian!

Kotooshu poses for a picture with his proud family, fiancee and the chairman of the Sumo Federation in Bulgaria (Lilyana Kaneva, far left).

Bulgaria - Macedonia tour

2009-08-05T02:55:00.000-07:00

From 20th to 24th July, we had the most wonderful tour, although short, around some of Bulgaria and Macedonia.

We had a short stop in a village along the way to Rila Monastery, to take pictures of several stork (Konotori) nests in its center:

After visiting Rila Monastery,

we headed over to Melnik:

We could not miss visiting Rozhen Monastery as well, which is just next to Melnik:

Our next notable stop was Ohrid and a tour around the old town.

Coming back to Bulgaria afterwards, we had a stop in a 5-star spa hotel in Kystendil.

The tour finished with a scenic walk around Cherni vrah, Vitosha mountain’s peak.

It was our great pleasure to show our good Japanese friends a bit of Macedonia and Bulgaria, and we hope to visit even more exciting and beautiful places in Bulgaria, or anywhere on the Balkan peninsula next time!

We will be uploading more pictures from the tour, on our website soon!

Festival of the Rose in Bulgaria

2009-04-14T03:55:00.000-07:00

The annual Festival of the Rose in Bulgaria, is one of Bulgaria’s most emblematic events. The festival will be held from May 29th till May 31st this year and while we will be sure to take a lot of photos, so that we publish them here for your viewing pleasure, you could also start planning your visit to the Festival of the Rose and see it with your own eyese!

We are capable of providing you with hotel reservations, transport, airplane tickets and guides for very good prices, as well as the warm-hearted service of our staff!

SEMA Express also has the pleasure to introduce you a new, attractive way to explore city sightseeings in Arbanassi, the old capital Veliko Tarnovo and the region – with a double-decker bus!

St. Atanasius' Day

2009-01-26T01:29:00.000-08:00

Some days ago, we were pleasantly surprised by the blooms of one of the first January flowers, the snowdrop:

This flower is related to St. Athanasius’ Day (18th January), a Bulgarian holiday. A Thracian legend tells that on this day, St. Tanas puts on a silk shirt, climbs to a high place and yells, "Go away, Winter, so that Summer may come!". Part of the tradition is also to pick up blooming hellebore and snowdrops in the morning, as well as meet the sunrise, as it is believed that upon seeing the people, the sun would grant them health and long life.

Saint Tanas is a patron of blacksmiths. In pagan mythology, he is the heavenly blacksmith, who reaches into his furnace to bring out the blazing sun every morning. The name Atanas comes from Old Greek "Athanasios", which means "eternal life".

We are currently preparing a text about the Bulgarian rose and the Rose festival in Bulgaria, expect to see it soon!

Kotooshu, fishing

2008-12-13T09:46:00.000-08:00

We learned a couple days ago from Kotooshu's blog about Kotooshu's success at catching Tai fish.

In connection to that, we prepared a little video about Kotooshu's birthplace, Djulyunitsa, and the river where he used to go fishing as a kid!

Sofia - Rila Monastery - Boyana Church - Sofia tour

2008-10-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

Sofia - Rila Monastery - Boyana Church - Sofia tour

On October 11th, which turned out to be a very beautiful and warm day, we took a small group of Japanese tourists over to two landmarks of Bulgaria's culture and Christian faith: Rila Monastery and Boyana Church, who also appear on UNESCO’s world heritage list.

[Rila Monastery entrance]

[Rila Monastery yard]

The Rila Monastery has a very rich history (you should check out their webpage), but it should be remembered most for the fact that it played a huge role in preserving Christianity in Bulgaria during the 5 century period of Turkish domination, also in serving as a hub of knowledge and education in the beginning of the Bulgarian renaissance.

After a delicious lunch (beans soup and fried fish meals, prepared in the typical for the region way), we headed back to Sofia to visit Boyana church.

[Boyana church]

[Boyana church yard]

What Boyana church is remarkable for are the 3 layers of its building – each layer of which was built at a different period – and 2 layers of frescoes. We were not allowed to take pictures of the church’s interior, but it was amazing to see Bulgaria’s cultural and spiritual development in the medieval period, just from the noticeable differences in the two fresco layers.

Teaching in Kotooshu's Middle School

2008-08-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

This is what happens, when you combine a long day with a hot, summer weather.

:P

Bulgaria Tour

2008-07-23T07:02:00.000-07:00

This is a compilation of short clips and pictures we took on one of our more recent Bulgaria tours - from 6th July to 13th July.

Our route was Sofia - Belogradchik - Rila Monastery - Melnik - Bansko - Kazanlak - Plovdiv - Ribaritsa - Balvantsi - Peina - Dryanovo - Gabrovo - Etara - Sokolski Monastery.

Bulgarian Sumo Competitions

2008-07-19T03:08:00.000-07:00

A quick recapture of two Bulgarian Sumo competitions, held in May.

11 May,Amateur Sumo Competition, Youths

14 May, 14th Bulgarian National Sumo Competition

Welcome!

2008-07-19T01:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Sema Express Staff Blog!

We will try to keep you updated with pictures, videos and other media of our most recent and most exciting tours!