The National Historic Museum in Sofia hosted the "Kukeri" group of the Bulgarian Leskovets village.

In the rural villages of Bulgaria, the "Kukeri" is an important masked ritual, carried forward from the Thracians.

The participants in this ritual are male only, dressed in sheepskin garments and wearing scary masks and chanove (copper bells) on their belts, dancing and singing Christmas songs and chants, with the intention to scare away the evil spirits or ghosts which people believed came back to the living ones in winter.

After the New Year young men, dressed like kukeri, go around the houses in the villages, singing songs and making the ritual of "survakane". Survakane is the ritual of hitting the backs of the hosts with a specially decorated cornel-tree branch, wishing health and good fortune.

The rituals of Kukeri and Survakane are a mixture between Christian and pagan traditions and symbols. There is a strong correlation between the events and the peasant life. They are unique folklore rituals, that can be seen only in Bulgaria.

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