Epiphany - Kalofer, Bulgaria

In Bulgaria on 6 January, as in other Eastern Orthodox countries, men gather beside open water, be it rivers, ponds or sea, and once a priest blesses the water and throws in a wooden cross, in the men plunge. The one who retrieves the cross and returns it to the priest is blessed and will, theoretically, stay healthy for the whole year.
Early in the morning, men dress in traditional clothes and enter in the cold waters of the Tundzha River.
Тhis man and his child are participants in The Male Ice Horo Dance in Kalofer