The territory of Bulgaria was inhabited still in the remotest antiquity. Pre-historic finds in some caves evidence the existence of intensive life on this land still in the Neolithic. The contemporary territory of Bulgaria used to be the core of the Thracian civilization which dominated over the Balkan peninsula before the new era. In the 4th century B.C. the nowadays Bulgarian territories belonged to the state of Philip of Macedonia, and later on they were a part of the Empire of Alexander the Great. In the 1st century A.D. the Roman Empire started conquering the Balkan peninsula; Byzanthine, the successor of the Roman Empire, used to rule over all the Bulgarian territory up to the 7th century A.D.

At the end of the 7th century (the year 681) the Bulgarian state was established and it united the local Slavonic tribes and the proto Bulgarians, who came from the proto-Bulgarian state which at that time existed in the region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Still in the 9th century it established itself as one of the three biggest states in Europe, together with the Byzanthine Empire and the Empire of Karl the Great. In the year 855 the brothers Cyril and Methodius invented the Slavonic alphabet; after Christianity was adopted as official religion, this alphabet was accepted in Bulgaria and from here it was later on spread in other countries (such as Russia, Serbia).
 
According to a tradition that has with stood for centuries, a folk carnival is organized in the village of Shiroka Luka in the first days of March every year. To this day a central place in the carnival is given to the group of adolescents and young men who are changed beyond recognition in their awe-inspiring leather and fur masks. They perform ancient scenes and dances to the rhythm of hundreds of bells tied to their bodies.

The rite sare fixed in the calendar to the Monday of the first Week before Lent - a day reffered to in this region as “Pes Monday”, hence the derived local name of the masked, i.e. pessyatsi or pessyatski starsti (pes old men).

A typical feature of the ritual costumes of the pessyatsi from Shiroka Luka are the masks of goat- or sheepskin, with the fur on the outside, which covers the whole head. Some of the masks resemble animals (rams, he-goats, oxen, etc.) and they have horns, prominent ears and muzzles, as well as artificial teeth made of onion.
 
The pessyatsi are usually attired in the characteristic dress worn by the local women - old and patched. Below this garment they stuff straw and mould a hunch on their backs. On their waist they wear belts with bells of various sizes and shapes. The decoration of these men also includes strings of dried red peppers and onions, martenitsas, broken horseshoues, etc. The “armament” of the pessyatsi consisting of wooden “swords” and crutches for yarn.

On Pes Monday, early in the morning, the group gathers in the village square and starts its rounds in the village, observing the ritual silence all the time. People suffering from various illnesses lie on their way, because the popular belief is that they will be healed if a pessyak jumps over them. The villagers get out in front on their homes and offer various products to the pessyatsi - wheat, flour, eggs, butter, cheese, etc. - and invite them to dance in their garden so that their trees would bear more fruit.

The ritual ends with setting fire to the hunches of straw on the backs of the disguished men.

The ritual perforemed for fertility, for abundance and for health reproduces some of the basic mythological notions about the creation.

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