All Holidays are non-working days for state institutions, schools and most private businesses but restaurants, bars and cafes and big shops are open.

1-2 January - New Year's Day
3 March - National Holiday / Bulgaria's Liberation from the Ottoman Empire
1 May - Labour Day
24 April - Easter
6 May - Gergyovden (St. George's Day) and Bulgarian Army Day
24 May - Bulgarian Education and Culture Holiday / Slavonic Literature Day
6 September - Unification Day (Holiday from September 3-6)
22 September - Independence Day (Holiday from September 22-25)
1 November - Day of the Bulgarian Enlighteners (for educational institutions only)
24, 25, 26 December - Christmas Days

 

January 1 - Vasilov den

January 6 - Yordanov den

January 7 - Ivanov den

January 17 - Antonov den

January 18 - Atanasov den

January 20 - Name day for Evtim

January 21 - Name day for Maksim

January 25 - Name day for Grigor

February 1 - Trifonov den

February 3 - Simeonov den

February 6 - Svetliov den

February 10 - Valentinov den

February 13 - Name day for Evlogi

February 28 - Todorov den

 

March 1 - Name day for Marta, Martin

March 13 - Nikiforov den

March 22 - Name day for Rosen, Rositsa

March 25 - Name day for Blagovest

March 28 - Name day for Boyko, Boyana

 

April 3 - Lazarov den

April 4 - Name day for Bozhana, Violeta, Yasen, Zdravko

April 11- Name day for Velichko

April 18 - Name day for Viktor, Toma

 

May 2 - Name day for Borislav

May 6 - Name day for Georgi, Gergana

May 11 - Name day for Kiril

May 20 - Spasov den

May 21 - Name day for Elena, Konstantin

 

June 7 - Name day for Valeri

June 13 - Asenov den

June 24 - Name day for Yanita, Yanko

June 26 - Name day for David

June 29 - Name day for Petar, Pavel, Kamen

June 30 - Name day for Apostol

 

July 1 - Name day for Damyan

July 7 - Name day for Nedelcho, Nedyalka

July 15 - Name day for Vladimir

July 16 - Name day for Yulia, Yuli

July 17 - Name day for Marina

July 18 - Name day for Emil

July 20 - Name day for Iliya, Iliyana

July 22 - Name day for Magdalena

July 25 - Name day for Yana, Ana

July 27 - Name day for Dobrina, Dobri

 

August 8 - Name day for Emil, Emiliya

August 15 - Name day for Mariya

August 20 - Samuilov den

August 26 - Name day for Adrian, Adriana, Nataliya

August 29 - Name day for Anastasi

August 30 - Aleksandrov den

 

September 1 - Simeonov den

September 5 - Name day for Elisaveta, Zahari

September 14 - Krustiov den

September 16 - Name day for Lyudmil, Lyudmila

September 17 - Name day for Lyubomir, Nadezhda, Vyara, Sofia

September 25 - Name day for Sergey

 

October 14 - Name day for Pencho, Petka, Petko

October 26 - Dimitrov den

 

November 8 - Name day for Angel, Ognyan, Gavril, Plamen, Radka, Rangel, Raina

November 11 - Name day for Viktor, Minko

November 16 - Name day for Matei

November 23 - Name day for Aleko, Aleksander

November 24 - Name day for Ekaterina, Katerina, Katya

November 25 - Name day for Kliment

November 30 - Name day for Andrei

 

December 5 - Name day for Silviya, Stanislav

December 6 - Nikolov den

December 9 - Name day for Ana, Anna

December 17 - Name day for Dana, Danail, Daniela

December 24 - Name day for Evgeni, Evgeniya

December 25 - Name day for Hristo, Hristiana

December 27 - Stefanov den

 

Some of the rituals on bulgarian New Year’s Day are mainly practised in the countryside of Bulgaria. It is a New Year's custom, expressing young girls' eagerness to get married and enjoy a happy family life. Ladouvane is a maidens' rite performed on the day before New Year only in Western Bulgaria, the Central Balkan Range and in some regions along the Danube River. In the rest of the country, it is celebrated on Midsummer Day. Preparations would start early in the morning. All lasses in the village would drop their rings, as well as oats and barley, the symbols of fertility, into a caldron full of spring water, all the rings fastened with a red thread to a bunch of perennial plants, such as ivy, crane's bill, or basil. The cauldron was left overnight in the open, under the stars, and on New Year's Eve, following a ritual dance around it, the girls' fortunes were told.

In Bulgaria bells also ring in the new year. A traditional Bulgarian New Year's dish banitza which is a flaky cheese pie. People usually gather together and celebrate the forthcoming new year.

During the communism in Bulgaria there was Diado Mraz, which is the Bulgarian equivalent of Santa Claus. Today Dyado Mraz is no longer called so, because the communist regime does not exist any more. So now Dyado Mraz is renamed to Dyado Koleda. Koleda is the Bulgarian name for Christmas.

 

3rd March is a very special day for Bulgaria, and is the national most important day. On this day Bulgaria celebrated the Liberty of the Ottoman yoke. The liberation of Bulgaria came as a result of the victory of Russia in the war declared on 12 April 1877. During the war, 12 battalions of more than 12000 Bulgarians joined the Russian army and fighted against the forces of Ottoman Empire. On March 3, 1878 a preliminary peace treaty was signed in San Stefano, near Constantinople. It included the restoration of an independent state of Bulgaria. And that is how Bulgaria regains its independence from Ottoman Empire.

On March 3, 1878 the Bulgarian people show their respect to the heroism of the Russian soldiers and the Bulgarian volunteers, who fought in the Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878, that put an end to the five centuries of foreign rule. Since 1990 the date March 3 is included in the list of Bulgaria's official holidays.

 

March 8 is the day of the cooperation of the women all over the world in their fight for independence, peace, economic, political and social equality and it is also celebrated in Bulgaria. This date is related to the first mass gathering of working women, which took place in new York on March 8, 1857. Clara Tsetkin suggested the following: each year in each first Sunday of the spring the Day of the working women would be celebrated and also their international solidarity, in order to mobilize the huge women groups seeking equality with men in every social sphere of life. For the first time the International women’s day is celebrated in 1911 in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Deutschland, and in 1913 – in France and Russia.

In Bulgaria March 8 was first celebrated in small groups by socialists in 1911; in 1915 is its first public celebration. As a bulgarian public holiday March 8 is being celebrated after September 9, 1944. In the beginning in some factories and enterprises is accounted the contribution of women in the culture, science, production and social life. After 1960 the celebration becomes at a much greater extent and happens to be the favorite holiday for women of all ages. For the children in Bulgaria this day is a holiday for mum.

 

Easter in Bulgaria -(in Bulgarian it is called ‘Velikden’) is in fact based on the main Christian dogma – the faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter in Bulgaria is being celebrated three days in a raw. Great Friday (Razpeti Petuk) is a time for spiritual purifying and is a day in which no one works in Bulgaria. From this day till the noon of the Saturday of Passion (Strastnata Subota) nothing is to be eaten.

On Saturday women had cooked special bulgarian ritual bread. This ritual bread is of different types. Some are round, elipse-shaped or of separated pieces in a plait. They are called yaychelnik, kukulnik, paska, velikdenski kravai.

In midnight on Saturday on Sunday people in Bulgaria go to church and under the melody of the bells they greet one another with the words: ‘Christ has risen!’ and the answer is ‘So has he.’ They kiss each other and wish one another health and luck. The kindled midnight candle is to be carried home silently.

On Sunday people are knocking boiled eggs trying to break them. These are special painted eggs. During the whole day people visit their neighbors and relatives. They bring also kozunak (bread with sugar, made of special yeast).

On Easter everyone in Bulgaria may wish something, as long as one does it sincerely, but one also should hold a coin in their hand. If one is faithful to their religion the wish will come true.

 

Labour Day on the 1st of May was celebrated in Bulgaria during the communism by all labour unions and employers with huge manifestations. Today the celebration of the Labour Day in Bulgaria is very moderate. The significance of this symbolic gesture of discarding the outlived 'struggle class theory' can be better understood if we consider the traditional meaning of Labour Day for the Eastern-European communist movement. This was a day of commemoration of past struggle, huge manifestations, and above all, demonstration of power, demonstration of willingness to fight "the class enemies" of the communist movement.

 

Saint George's Day (Gergiovden) is the happiest and most appreciated spring’s holiday with a special day to be celebrated on – May 6. Saint Great Martyr George Pobedonosets (The Carrier of Victory) is worshipped and praised by both christians and muslims. According to the church George is born in Kapadokia (Mala Asia). With his brilliant education, only 20 years old, he receives high military title, as a talanted general. Son of wealthy christian parents he becomes a passionate follower of the Christian Faith. As his protector he was put through terrible torment and wad decapitated in 288 during the rule of Emperor Diocletian (284-305). George becomes an example of the ‘perfect christian’ and a saint protector of war and legion. According to popular legends George is a Dragon and Serpent fighter as well. Iconography depicts George exactly the same way – as a Dragon fighter.

On Saint George's Day – May 6 – everywhere sheep is to be eaten. It is slaughtered in the name of the saint protector. Meals are eaten among ‘the green’ in the church’s yard, nearby the village, or the sheep-fold. The sheep is to be baked whole, sometimes full of pluck and rise, and ornated with a leafy branch, ad then is being carried to the church to be sacrated or straightway on the table.
Besides the baked sheep other meals are prepared on Saint George's Day. One very important thing is the ritual bread, made with lots of effort and by skilful women. The way to be prepared is very complicated and takes quite a lot of time.

St. George has been the patron saint of the Bulgarian Army since the First Bulgarian State (681-1018). So May 6. is also the Bulgarian Army Day. The Day of the Bulgarian Army was first celebrated in 1880 to mark the re-establishment of the Bulgarian Army after the liberation from the Turkish yoke. It was celebrated even during the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 and the First World War. After 1947, the date was changed several times, partly to coincide with the rise of the communists. The original date of May 6 was reinstated as the Day of the Bulgarian Army in 1993.

 

24 May is the Day of Cyrillic Alphabet, Bulgarian Enlightment and Culture. It is beyond dispute that the Bulgarian alphabet and the first translations of liturgical books to the Slavonic language were the work of Constantine-Cyril, the Philosopher (about 827-869). Paradoxically, however, within a short period of time two alphabets - the Glagolitic and the Cyrillic - were created and, respectively, replaced, and so far scholars are not unanimous in their opinion of which one of them was created by Constantine-Cyril.

The second one was the Cyrillic alphabet which is used in our days by Bulgarians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians, as well as by many non-Slavic peoples which belonged to the former Soviet Union. There is no doubt that both in its sounds and visual symbols it was based on the Greek uncial writing. It is assumed that this script was the work of Clement of Ohrid, one of Cyril’s followers, who paid tribute to Cyril’s deed by naming the alphabet after him.

The day is celebrated by all Bulgarians. In Sofia people put flowers in front of the monument of St. Cyril and St. Methody which is situated in front of the National Library named after the two saints. This holiday is extremely important for the Bulgarian nation because it symbolizes the unity of the Bulgarian people.

 

This day – September 6 – is claimed to be the day when Bulgarians made history and did not wait for it to happen without them doing anything. The Reunion is a fact after many uprisings in different towns in the territory of Easter Rumelia, followed by a military coup d’etat at September 6 (September 18 – new style), 1885, supported by the Bulgarian prince Alexander I.

One of the most significat achievments of the Bulgarian spirit – the Reunion of Eastern Rumelia with the Bulgarian Kingdom at September 6, 1885 – is the only socio-political idea of re-establishing the territorial and national unity of Bulgaria after the Ottoman liberation in 1878. Macedonia and Tracia of White Sea were traditionally part of the Bulgarian territory through the ages, with more than 80% Bulgarian people, remain forever out of the newly-established Bulgarian country.

The Reunion prevents the creation of an artificial country in traditionally Bulgarian territory after July 1878 in Eastern Rumelia. After this separation of the territory of Bulgaria the Bulgarian people decide to help the whole and complete union of all Bulgarian territories. Unfortunately they could not express their will strongly, and did not organize well. The Reunion is an example of the historical record of the particular moment, when a balance had to be struck so that the result could be at least satisfactory. Some of the most important and memorable names, people who participated in the Reunion, are Zaharii Stoyanov, Ivan Andonov, Danail Nikolaev, etc.

 

On Christmas Eve (bulgarian Koleda) a special diner is prepared, consisting of at least twelve meals. All of them are without meat and each of them represents a separate month of the year. The meals consist of beans, different kinds of nuts, dried plums, cakes, and the traditional Bulgarian Banitza. On this day the whole family gathers, eat on straw and get off the table in the same time.

Christmas in Bulgaria was celebrated differently years ago. There were boys and non-married young men who were visiting the houses, singing songs for wealth and health for the hosts. They were rewarded with money, food and so on. They were bringing long sticks to put kravai which are round breads with holes in them. They were called koledari. In the houses the families gathered sitting on the ground or on dry grass and eating meatless food. There were 7 or 12 meals: wine, rakia , sarmi and so on. There always was a huge round ritual bread.

 

December 24th marks the end of fasting in the Orthodox tradition and all the food served should be without meat. The mother in the family prepares the food from the morning - sarmi (cabbage leaves stuffed with rice), stuffed peppers, ushaf (prepared from boiled dry fruits), beans. On the festive table one should also put garlic, walnuts, honey (symbolizing fertility). Special bread is distributed among the members of the family. The bread contains a small coin. The tradition is that the person who gets the coin will be the luckiest in the family during the approaching New Year. Special incense is burnt. It is believed that the bad spirits are sent away. The old bulgarian tradition requires the festive table to remain till the next morning un touched. It is believed that the spirits of the dead members of the family return home during the night.