Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

1 January: The Bulgarian Orthodox church honours St. Basil the Great

Photo: Radio Vidin

On 1 January the Bulgarian Orthodox church marks the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ and St. Basil’s Day. January 1 is the day when the memory is honoured of influential theologian St. Basil the Great, who dedicated himself to pious and charitable work. 

Almost 127,000 Bulgarians named Vassil, Vassilia, Vassilena, Vesselin, Vessela etc., celebrate their name-day today. In Bulgarian folklore tradition, the day is called Vassilitsa and Survaki. The ritual of survakane is performed early in the morning as young boys make the rounds of the homes in the town or village, and tap the backs of family and friends with a decorated cornel twig (survachka) with wishes for health and prosperity.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Young people out of a job are mostly with a secondary school education

Almost half of the unemployed under the age of 29 in this country have secondary school education, indicate the latest data of the National Employment Agency. There are 17.350 people from this age bracket registered at the job centres –7,570 of..

published on 11/2/24 11:51 AM

PP/DB sends parliamentary forces a declaration on a cordon sanitaire around Delyan Peevski

We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria (PP/DB), which came second in the 27 October parliamentary election, sent the other political forces to be represented in parliament a “Declaration for ridding the institutions and the election process of..

published on 11/2/24 11:06 AM

65 cameras from the online video streaming of the elections have no recordings

The recordings from 65 cameras, which streamed the counting of the ballots on election night online, have gone missing, according to a report by the caretaker cabinet regarding the provision of the material and technical logistics for the elections...

published on 11/2/24 10:45 AM