Folk Faith and Objective Reality: The Fires in the Region of the Village of Yugovo, Middle Rhodope Mountains

Authors:

Pages: 413-422
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/RJPP3874

Abstract:

This text was written after the big fire in the so-called Radyu Mountain in the Rhodopes, located in the region of the villages of Yugovo, Narechenski Bani, and Narechen. The disaster was caused by a thunderstorm without rain (12–26 August 2021). In this paper, we would like to connect the local attitudes towards this calamity with the memory of another relatively recent fire that acquired a specific form in the villagers’ minds. The aim of the paper is to analyze the above-mentioned attitudes from an ethnological point of view, i.e. through the prism of the popular belief in the so-called Yugovo dragon – a superior demonic creature in the local people’s religious mentality.

Keywords:

Yugovo; fire; dragon; folk mentality.

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