On January 18, the Orthodox Church revers the memory of St. Athanasius the Great. According to popular belief, St. Athanasius is a patron of winter storms. On horseback, donned in a silk shirt, goes St. Athanasius into the forest and yells, “Go away, yo, winter, come, thee, summer!” And according to the Bulgarian popular belief, he does that each year on January 18, and that is why it is known as the Winter Atanasovden or Amidst Winter in the popular calendar.
It is said that from January 18 the day begins to grow by one millet seed. In some regions of the country people used to believe that plague was born on this day. To protect themselves from the deadly disease, people used to sacrifice a black hen to prepare a ritual meal.
Atanas, Atanaska, Nasko, Tina, Tinka, Tanyu, Taska celebrate their name day today.
On September 14, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church bows down before the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified . The Exaltation of the Holy Cross of the Lord or Cross Day is one of the 12 great Christian holidays. It is one of the four days..
Today, Bulgaria celebrates the 140th anniversary of the Unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia. The center of the festivities is Plovdiv, where on this day in 1885, after the entry of the Golyamo Konare detachment into the..
In June 1878, after the 10 th Russo-Turkish war in a row, at the Berlin congress, the lands in the Balkans inhabited by Bulgarians were divided up into five. Northern Dobrudja was handed over to Romania. Serbia got the Sanjak of Niš. The lands..
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