SOFIA, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Over 10,000 people wearing masks took part in Bulgaria's traditional masquerade festival on Friday in Pernik, a town located 30 km west of Bulgaria's capital city of Sofia.

       Masquerade rituals in Bulgaria are believed to be dating back to pagan times, when people tried to chase away winter's evil spirits by putting on scary-looking ritual masks and making as much noise as possible with rattles and bells, and to bring fertility and health, and to prepare people for a new beginning.

       This year's event, the "Surva" International Festival of Masquerade Games, attracted 105 masquerade groups from Bulgaria and 20 from other countries including Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.

       The three-day event, which will end on Sunday, kicked off Friday with a youth masquerade parade, involving 25 groups.

       Surva is part of "our cultural heritage and we value it greatly," Nikolay Nenov, head of the festival jury, told Xinhua.

       There are different roles played in Bulgarian masquerade groups such as commander, bride, bridegroom, doctor, policeman and various animals.

       According to Nenov, the festival in Pernik is a powerful stimulus for the formation of local identity, "which is especially important in today's globalized world."

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       Stoyan Karagogushev, who is leading a group of 70 tradition-loving people from Kolarovo, a village near the Bulgarian border with Greece, has always been fascinated with past beliefs and rituals the Surva embodies.

       "I have been playing masquerade games since I was little. Kids want to. We continue the tradition," Karagogushev said.

       A group from a foreign language high school in Pernik also took part in the youth masquerade parade. The school's principal, Temenuzhka Krumova, said, "Every year, they are waiting for the festival impatiently, and it is a wonderful emotion."