It's Sunday, for some bath day. Taking a shower is the subject of scientific research, and the jokes proved offensive to some Bulgarians, who came out to protest against Bernard Shaw's play outside the National Theatre. It is not a myth that there are Bulgarians who still bathe only on Sundays and then even celebrate their bath. There's a whole science to it. What has the term purely Bulgarian meant over the years?
The hygiene of the Bulgarians is a topic for a dissertation. So much folk psychology, history, religion, superstitions and magic are intertwined in it that in order to be able to scientifically explain why bathing is an effort for the natives, you need to spend a lot of time. This is done by the ethnologist Violeta Kotseva, who wrote a book, over 300 pages, dedicated to the hygiene of the Bulgarian woman. Her research began after the liberation, Nova TV.
says"No one will go to bathe when there is no water, and the intricate entanglements of maidens take a long time. This is an unnecessary waste of resources and time," she points out.
At that time there was no water supply, no sewage, and the bathroom was something far in the future.
According to her, change is slow. It is very difficult to accept the views of modern doctors. And they were that cleanliness is health.
"Physicians are not well received in places simply because there is conflict. This is a completely natural process - of imposing modern medicine, to the norms of modern medicine, which is mythological," adds Assoc. Kotseva.
One of the myths is the sacred Sunday bath day. It is no coincidence that this day is also dedicated to God.
"One enters a church clean spiritually and physically. This is found in all monotheistic religions, the washing, purification and then going to church so that one can purify oneself with prayer," she also shares.
"Wind and current can be harmful to the body, and there is a widespread opinion that no one has died from not bathing, but cemeteries are full from colds,", explains the ethnologist.
From the Ottoman culture, we borrowed the hammam type bath, which became an indispensable part of the nation's hygiene.
Going to the bathroom is a real ritual, and for women it is their cafe. This is how the expression “Happy bath!” appears, which Churchill is said to have mocked us.
"It is a fact that this expression lives, exists in our conditions. It is again bound up in the context of the whole festivity associated with Sunday. We are not talking about a bath in the modern sense of the word, but what can be visibly washed - hands, head, hair, face", explained Assoc. Kotseva.
Galin is the man who sang the bath, everything happened by chance after the barracks. He is not proud of the song that became a huge hit.
A week ago, there was tension in front of the National Theater because of a line from Bernard Shaw's play: “I don't mind a nice bath once a week, for good self-esteem; but every day, it's a ridiculous extreme.”
“Why are we so offended. Most likely, it is a matter of not knowing the processes, of a higher sensitivity in an extremely uncertain society in which we live today. I don't see what it would have done if we had bathed more or less. It is not important how many times a person has bathed, but whether he has cleansed himself from the inside and repented before God, alone in front of his own conscience, Galin believes.