Bulgaria's fire dancers fight to keep sacred ritual

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

BULGARI, Bulgaria (AFP) — As night falls over the remote village of Bulgari, a handful of men and women prepare for "Nestinarstvo", an ancient fire dance that practitioners fear is being trivialised by tourism.

"It doesn't matter how hot the embers are. You just switch off and feel or hear nothing but the drum and the bagpipe," says 54-year-old Mihail Georgiev, one of the "Nestinari" or fire-dancers.

He steps barefoot onto the red-hot coals but like other Nestinari apparently suffers no pain or burns during the ritual -- something that remains a mystery to doctors.

His forehead is dotted with sweat and his shirt sticks to his back, but Mihail claims his feet are ice-cold as he dances, clutching an icon of Saints Constantine and Elena close to his face....