I was living in the village of Parvomay, close to Petrich. My first meeting with Baba Vanga was in 1965. One evening, unexpectedly Baba Vanga and two other people came to visit my house. I got worried that I don’t have enough food to welcome my important guests, as our local grocery store was closed. I had some leftover meal from my afternoon cooking, but that wasn’t enough for all of my guests. I went to my neighbours, and they gave some mozarela, feta cheese, olives, and wormwood wine. Baba Vanga insisted to try my homemade meal – eggplant with rice. I gave everyone 1 spoon of it, and Baba Vanga loved it so much that she was asking me to prepare it for her quite often.
When I sent off my guests, at the front door Baba Vanga told me that I will go to work at her place, and I will die there.
Twenty years later I went to live with Baba Vanga in the Rupite. Once she told me: “I put on steal shoes to rummage the world so I finally find you. It wasn’t me who chose you – it was the superior powers that guide me – they did.”
Baba Vanga became more than a mother to me. I took care of her day and night for over 12 years, until she passed away. She loved my daughters – Natasha and Stefka like her own children. Her house was always opened for them. Eventually, Baba Vanga helped us to built a small house nearby hers, so there is a place where my daughters could stay, when they were visiting her. After she passed away, the foundation that was established in the name of Baba Vanga, told us to demolish the house, as it was illegally built.
Baba Vanga About Cleanness
I remember once we had quite a few guests, and I was helping with cleaning the dishes and tiding up the kitchen. On one pot, I must have not seeing a little spot on the bottom. Somehow Baba Vanga found this spot and yelled at me to go and clean it at once. I won’t forget that – her face looked angry and grumpy on me. Sometimes she would get rude, but she never did that out of bad feelings for someone, but because she had her own set of rules when it comes to cleanness and order. You can really see her mad, if something is not clean, or put in order, the way she want it to be.
Baba Vanga About Food
Baba Vanga was not a vegetarian but she rarely ate meat. She loved it when I cooked her bean, rice, or veggies’ soups. She was always telling me what products to put, in what quantities, in what sequence to mix all, and for how long to boil it. She preferred stews over roasted or fried meals. She wasn’t using that many spices, but in almost all meals she would have put black-pepper or garden’s tea. And if I or somebody else was cooking for her, the whole recipe had to be done the way she wanted it.
Once I did cook a veggie stew in my own recipe. Baba Vanga wasn’t home at the time, so I prepared the meal so she can have it for lunch. When I served her, she didn’t even touch it saying: “Vitka, why you didn’t ask me – now you will eat your veggie stew alone.” She was really very serious about her food. Since I lived with her for 12 years every morning she would tell me: “Vitka today you will cook this and this. You will put this and this ingredient, you will boil it for this and this time.”
The food was something special to Baba Vanga – like a ritual. She strictly insisted to cook her food in a clay pot, and to stir the meal with a wooden spoon.
When I met Baba Vanga her husband Mitko had already passed away. She only said good things about him. Often she would say that she has had a husband for 20 years. She would mention that especially when young girls that wanted to divorce were coming to visit her for advice. She was absolutely against the divorces, and often told her visitors that even if a man marries a hundred times, he still will find flaws in his partner and will never be happy or satisfied with his marriage. That is why she was saying that whoever is your spouse you have to “walk” with him till the end, as this is your luck and your destiny.
Baba Vanga knew the day and time when she was going to pass away. Over the last few months of her life she would say: “I am a traveller for the other world Vitka, I am a traveller…” I would start crying and would tell her: “who do you leave me to? You brought me here 12 years ago, what will I do without you?” She told me: “Well you have your daughters, they will take care of you.”
Baba Vanga did feel sorry that she didn’t have her own children, despite what she was telling her visitors that to raise one child, and to educate him, is much more important than to just give birth.
Baba Vanga About Children
Baba Vanga was deeply compassionate for those women who wanted to have children, but could not conceive. She knew very well what they feel and in most cases had cures for them. For conceiving she was doing an old ritual with a doll. She asked them to bring her a doll, a diaper, and a basin. I have watched her how she grabs the doll and starts talking to it something that she only knew what was it. Then she dips the doll in water, wash it as if it was a baby, and then wraps it in the diaper. Then she gives the doll to the woman, and tell her to keep it in her bedroom – until she gets pregnant.
After 9 months, those women were coming back to her to kiss her hand out of gratitude – almost all were becoming pregnant. Baba Vanga was crying out of joy, and was very excited. Very often those families would invite Baba Vanga to be the Godmother of their newborns. First she asked what were the names of their grandmothers and grandfathers. If the family did not want to have their children named after some of their relatives, Baba Vanga would choose a different name. In case the day of birth was on a celebration day, Baba Vanga would use the name of the Saint for the respective holiday.
Baba Vanga was very happy when people were coming to greet her and to kiss her hand. Her soul was in a great excitement. Typically this would happen on Sunday when there was a church holiday. She was going out in the yard, and was sitting at a chair. This is where hundreds of people were coming to visit her. The busiest times were at the biggest holidays such as Easter, Christmas, Jordan day, St. Petka, The Annunciation and others. Baba Vanga was as happy as a child. She did understand that all these people came for good and only for good to express their gratitude to her. I think these were the times when she would forget about her great pain and misery that she has had and continue to have.
Zheni Kostadinova graduated Philosophy at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. She has worked as an editor at the student TV show “Ku-Ku”, and as a reporter at the National Radio “Horizon”. For over 15 years she is a columnist at “Weekly Trud” newspaper writing about esoteric and psychology. In the same newspaper she is maintaining a page on literature. Zheni Kostadinova is the author of some of the most popular books written on Baba Vanga including “Baba Vanga The Prophetess”, “Baba Vanga Predictions”, “The Secret of Baba Vanga”. Her first book was translated into Russian, Polish, Latvian, Serbian, and Albanian. Zheni is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Writers. She had published three books of poetry: “Fire Sticks (2002), “17 love colors” (2007), and “Fig Jam” (2008). In 2012 Zheni has founded the art-house “Kuklite”. It is a doll gallery and a mini-museum located in the old downtown of Sofia. The gallery exhibits different dolls placed in specific categories. Besides the exhibitions, the art-house “Kuklite” also have the priority to work with children from the local schools, so they learn more about the traditions and customs of the different nations. The main idea is to transform the art-house “Kuklite” into a centre for cultural exchange, creative collaboration between representatives of different fields of art, science and philosophy. The art-house will hold meetings with interesting personalities, and will be a place of exhibitions, seminars, workshops, premieres of books and documentary movies, puppetry, and many other great events. The art-house “Kuklite” will also be a place where collectors can display their favourite artefacts and can share the history associated with them.
