At 12 noon today, to the sound of sirens, people around the country paid tribute to the memory of revolutionary poet Hristo Botev and all people who have laid their lives for the freedom of Bulgaria, by standing still in the course of 2 minutes.  

Earlier in the day, thousands climbed Okolchitsa peak in the Vratsa portion of the Balkan Range in tribute to Hristo Botev and his men, BNR’s correspondent Iva Antonova reports from Vratsa.

“For us, Bulgarians, Hristo Botev is a symbol of freedom from oppression, a symbol of self-sacrifice for one’s country, of a complete overlap between words and deeds – in his poetry, in his deeds during his brief life,” said National Assembly President Natalia Kiselova in her speech at the peak. The revolutionary poet is alive in our patriotism, she said, in our sense of national dignity, in the memory of the nation that Bulgaria can be a democratic, free and European country.

The public paid tribute to the memory of Hristo Botev and all people who lost their lives in the pursuit of freedom in many towns and villages around the country.  The Day of Botev was first celebrated in 1884 in Vravtsa and in Plovdiv.

Editing by Diana Tsankova
Translated and posted by Milena Daynova
Photo: BGNES