Bulgaria: Events

Public holidays include New Year (1 and 2 January), Liberation Day (3 March), Orthodox Easter Sunday and Monday (March/April, one week after Catholic/Protestant Easter), Cyrillic Alphabet Day (24 May) and Christmas (25 and 26 December). The reason for the two Christmas days is that religious Bulgarians were forbidden to practise during the Communist era, so they invented a secular - and suspiciously Christmas-like - celebration on the following day. Since the collapse of Communism, the original Christmas Day has been celebrated as before, but the invented holiday has been sensibly retained. Bulgarians observe a number of traditional customs. Trifon Zarezan on 14 February is the ancient festival of the wine growers. Vines are pruned and sprinkled with wine to ensure a bounteous harvest. On 1 March Bulgarians give one another martenitsi , red and white tasselled threads which are worn for health and happiness at the coming of spring. When wearers see their first stork of the season, the martenitsa is tied to the nearest tree.

At the Koprivshtitsa International Folk Festival, which is held every five years, some 4000 finalists compete for awards. There is a biennial festival in Pernik at which participants, wearing traditional masks and costumes, perform ancient dances to drive away evil spirits and ask the good spirits for a plentiful harvest. Held as winter turns into spring, Kukeri is another festival, most avidly celebrated in the Rodopi Mountains. The Festival of Roses is celebrated with folk songs and dances at Kazanlâk and Karlovo on the first Sunday in June.