World Guinness Records: 333 Bagpipes & Bulgarian Folk Musicq Sofia, Bulgaria

Regional styles abound in Bulgaria. Dobrudzha, Sofia, Rhodopes, Macedonia, Thrace and the Danube shore all have distinctive sounds. Folk music revolved around holidays like Christmas, New Year’s Day, midsummer, and the Feast of St. Lazarus, as well as the Strandzha region’s unusual Nestinarstvo rites, in which villagers fell into a trance and danced on hot coals as part of the joint feast of Sts Konstantin and Elena on May 21. Music was also a part of more personal celebrations such as weddings. Singing has always been a tradition for both men and men. Songs were often sung by women at work parties such as the sedenka (often attended by young men and women in search of partners to court), betrothal ceremonies, and just for fun. Women had an extensive repertoire of songs that they sang while working in the fields. Young women eligible for marriage played a particularly important role at the dancing in the village square (which not to