Bulgaria is a country nestled in the southeastern corner of Europe.
Not much is heard about it on the news, and it is still largely undiscovered by tourists.
It lies north of Greece and south of the Danube River.
To its east is the Black Sea, and its neighbor to the west is Serbia.
Bulgaria is one of the oldest settled lands in all of Europe.
It has a rich history and diverse customs, and its people are proud of their heritage.
The Bulgarians have a rich tradition of celebrating festivals and gatherings.
In the past Bulgaria was largely an agricultural nation because of its fertile soil.
It produced an abundance of vegetables, fruits, grain, and products from farm animals.
Today the country is industrialized, and many products are imported.
Local farms, however, continue to grow a variety of harvests.
The Bulgarian people continue to grow one item that has perfume companies from Paris to New York talking.
It is very hard to produce, and it is very expensive.
It is the pure rose oil extracted from a small pink rose named Rosa damascene, and it is an important ingredient in many perfumes.
In the center of Bulgaria lies the Valley of the Roses.
It is a fertile valley covered in tiny pink roses whose sweet aroma can be felt like a perfume in the air.
The valley's moderate climate allows the roses to grow in perfect conditions.
The local people have been cultivating these unique flowers for hundreds of years.
The farmers who live in the valley pick the roses when they start to bloom in the beginning of June.
They gather the tiny buds very early in the morning, just before sunrise, because that is when the roses are still fresh and full of dew.
Traditionally, it was the young girls and women who harvested the roses and collected them in their baskets.
They would put the very first flower they picked in their hair for decoration.
While they worked, they sang the traditional songs sung every year during the rose harvest.
Today the production is much faster, but the roses are still picked by hand by local farmers.
After the roses are picked, they are rushed to the rose distillery before the sun has a chance to dry them.
Their petals are collected in large pots and pressed to extract tiny amounts of oil.
It takes almost two tons of petals to produce just one pound of pure rose oil.
The rose oil is very aromatic and very expensive.
It is even more expensive than gold.
Besides its use in perfumes, rose oil is used in medicines, cosmetics, soaps, and even in rose petal jam!
Today picking the prized blossoms is the main industry in the Rose Valley, and this industry continues to grow.
Every year the first day of picking is celebrated with an annual Rose Festival.
This daylong festival is usually held in the first week of June.
The pickers wear their traditional costumes decorated with garlands of roses.
They hold a beauty contest and choose a Rose Queen.
Later when the harvest is over, the Rose Queen rewards the most skilled picker with a crown.
The title of Rose Queen is an important honor for the lucky girl who receives it, and the festival itself has become a celebration of beauty.
Since roses are a symbol of beauty and because the flowers are used in the beauty industry,
the festival organizers felt that they needed to nominate a beauty queen.
That's how the Rose Queen was born.
Many Bulgarian actors, musicians, and circus performers flock to the Rose Valley every year to perform in the festival.
It has even become an international destination for tourists from all over the world.
The Rose Festival ends with a carnival where local people dress up in costumes and dance all night long.
The very first Rose Festival was held in 1903 in the nearby town of Kazanlak.
It slowly grew from a small gathering of rose pickers to a national event with many towns and villages participating.
It keeps the traditions associated with the rose harvest alive, and it makes the local farmers very proud of their labor.
Bulgarians are very proud of their rose oil production, which carries the name of their country far and beyond.
They feel that the rose is the queen of all flowers, and that is why they have picked it to be their national flower.
Today the Rose Festival and the harvest go hand in hand.
Local people gather to celebrate the beautiful tradition of rose picking,
and international companies continue to import the best rose oil in the world from the Valley of the Roses.