“Anastenaria”
is a religious ritual performed in a small number of villages in
Northern Greece and South - Eastern
Bulgaria. During
the
main part of the
ritual, people of all ages dance for many hours, holding
icons and other sacred objects in their hands, reaching
a self-transcendent
state. The repetitive and evocative rhythm of music does not
just accompany this ritual dance but plays a particularly significant
role in
the participants’ experience. A
bonfire is lit and the coals are then spread on the ground. The
ritual reaches
its climax
with the “Anastenarides”
dancing barefoot over the
hot coals, until there are
only ashes left.
The
ritual is thought to have its origins in the Dionysian Mysteries that
evolved in mainland ancient Greece, though according to others it is
even older. Nowadays
the celebrations of Saints Constantine and Helen form the frame for
the current Christian
adaptation of the ritual, which
is still however considered as heretic by the Orthodox Church.
The
communities that currently participate in the ritual consist of
families descending from refugees from Eastern Thrace that settled in
Northern Greece during the forced migration movements that followed
the Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913. For
the “Anastenarides”,
dancing on embers recalls the rescue of their holy icons from the
fire that burnt down a church in their
homeland, when the icons themselves “cried for help” according to
the legend.
Over
time, the ritual has gone through a lot of transformations and
interpretations. It continues, though, to maintain its cathartic
function for the participants, who seem to experience through it a
feeling of purification, leaving behind whatever torments them. Their
burdens are symbolically represented by fire; hence, the
“Anastenarides”
keep dancing until they properly extinguish the coals, until they
reach - together - a state of rebirth through this experience. Their
ritual dance, when seen stripped of its mythological connotations,
apparently becomes an ultimate
expression of a primordial human need, which keeps calling for help
from
within
the flames, like their holy icons.