July Morning and Wednesday’s Road of Her Own

Introduction: July Morning or simply July is a peculiar later replica to the US Hippie Movement of the 60′s, an event with Bulgarian origin that takes place on the eve and in the morning of the first day of July. The idea is to get together by the sea, meaning to the East, in order to meet the first rays of the morning sun. The meaning is associated with the protest against Communism and was first manifested by young people in the remote 80′s or even 70′s, they say. The name is derived from Uriah Heep’s popular song “July Morning” and the facing of the rising sun symbolizes the meeting of new and better times.

Greetings to all nice people, young, younger and further young girls and boys who are meeting July Morning today and knowing or not that much what they are celebrating. I am greeting the classics who are going to make it in the way tradition says as well as the alternatives who will celebrate it in different ways on purpose or not, or simply because of circumstances beyond the will. The routine is not relevant here, spirit is the one that only matters.

CLASS OF ’07

track >> PLAY
band >> uriah heep
lyrics >> july morning

And what does tradition says?!… In fact, I need to admit I have never known exactly what. At the time I was beginning to hear about hippies, The Doors, July Morning and the bands from the 70′s (hehheh one of the greatest mixtures I have ever tangled), I only knew then that when the time came, right on the edge to missing it, someone would wake up somehow and say, “Come on to the July”. After which some throwing of haversacks would follow and people under the sacks forwarding to the most unthinkable peculiar directions, but not exactly where the official rule did point.

Do not think of any intentions here. On the contrary, even now as I think, I have always wished to get the chance to at least one time celebrate it due to the tradition, but alas, my way is unpredictable and tends to take me far away from the predicted targets. In example, I remember to have met the sun by the sea not necessarily on a July morning. Simply deciding and gathering around the fire with or without guitar jingling, with night swimming and awakening on the beach, as they do on the first of July.

I also remember I have once celebrated that date not exactly by the sea but on the banks of a river after we decided to make a visit to a buddy’s house. We threw ourselves on a train and arrived at a place where had some difficulties to find the village pub, but in return loaded notably with beer and still more notably commemorated the festive event with the only music taken with us, a notable cassette tape of Uriah Heep, on a cluttered old cassette recorder. At the end of the ritual, the so notable swimming in waters, low to the knees, and the rest of the records fading with the river.

I have memories of travelling to Varna for this occasion as well (besides the numerous other times without or for another reason), and the meeting was at a hippie party, yet not by the sea. Indeed, since I am a child of the water and a flower child, what was that impossible for me so I failed to join the official hippie gatherings?! I do not know, we are just like this, natural born alternatives; things will always happen in another way or run into different directions, willing or not, it is in our genes.

However, where did these official gatherings take place?!… And also, how “official” have they been, because I cannot remember publicly organized concerts and meetings then at places labeled to be “official July Morning destinations”, as they are now. We just used to know then that people gather along the beaches with friends, whether forwarding to Varna or Burgas, whether at the sands or rocks, whatever direction caught, in couples, in groups and even larger groups with the party going on until, in the morning, they were all so mixed in one and forgotten who they were and why they were, therefore quite naturally succeeding with the idea of the July to meet the first sun of the month together.

All that was alternative in those days, the place and the manner were not so essential. It used to happen spontaneously and often not that welcomed by the non-participating. Music was a self-made scene, and the party only depended on your own presence there. I do not think that most of us have had the slightest idea of a good new tradition beginning to establish, a one even better if keeping on forward, and personally, I have never been aware it is uniquely Bulgarian (but this is Wed’s case, she often falls from another planet hehheh).

And as is by law, on the edge of missing the date (because another topic has been scheduled for today), however and most unexpectedly, succeeding to capture the chance, I am greeting you with the song that has become the anthem for us in the celebration of this special day.