New Years Day

This New Years I was in the town of Razlog. On New years day they have a parade and celebration called Kookery. In this parade people dress up in hairy costumes with bells and dance around, I believe the origin of this is that the costumes and bells would scare away the evil and winter spirits and bring the arrival spring. In addition to the dancers, neighborhoods within the town create a float that they bring to the center of town. It was allot of fun to see all of the people dancing and also the interesting floats they made. All except for one.
One float contained the most disturbing thing I have seen since I have been here. The title of this float was something along the lines of "Killing pigs the EU way" (Bulgaria entered the EU on January 1st). On this float there were men in butchers aprons, several tables and a stove. As the float moved into the center of town I saw that there was also a live pig on the float. When the float arrived in the center of town the men placed the pig on the table and slit its throat. They did this in front of everyone. Many people crowded around the float to watch the pig thrash about as it died and take pictures. While the pig was moving some men on the float held it down while others waved their bloody knives in the air and danced around.
I have been living in this country for eighteen months now and I would have thought by this point that I would be more or less used to seeing just about everything that goes on in this country. Seeing something like this and being shocked by it makes me feel good however, because I know that this place hasn't changed me for the worse and turned me into someone I don't want to be.