Buy & Sell Bulgaria Insight Newsletter

March 1st is probably our most intrinsic holiday because it is unique to Bulgaria. The custom of wearing martenitsas (red-and-white threads worn as a decoration) is only popular in Bulgaria and it is perhaps the most positive one in all our folklore. This tradition is based upon the founding of Bulgaria in 681 AD and there are many more than one folk-legends about the origin of this celebrated day.

Today Bulgarians give the red and white colors only to please Granny Marta so she will not make us cold. In doing so, we are expressing the hope that the spring will come as quickly as possible. Once we have those tokens, which we put on our clothing or wear on our wrist, we keep them until we see a sign of spring; a bird associated with spring such as a stork, crane or swallow or blossoming trees. After seeing the stork, some will tie the Martenitza on a fruit tree, symbolically giving the tree the health and luck that they had while wearing the token.

Bulgaria was caught in three days of real winter conditions, in the beginning of February. Compared to the weather we had in January and the rest of February, I must say it was freezing cold. Temperatures reached about minus 15 degrees Celsius, Standart daily newspaper reports.

However, it is nice and warm again. There are even trees which have blossomed!

FEBRUARY is the month when Bulgarians celebrate wine and its patron saint Trifon, also known as Trifon Zarezan. For vine-growers and wine-makers Trifon Zarezan has become so popular that it is celebrated both in accordance with the old and the new religious calendars. The old calendar stresses the date of February 1, but over the past fifteen years, February 14 has become the day of Trifon Zarezan. This provides the opportunity and excuse for many people to repeat it in less than two weeks. The fact that February 14 is also the day of St Valentine has made the date very popular because Bulgarians can choose weather to celebrate wine or love, or even both, on the same date.

The festivities on the day of Trifon Zarezan mark the dividing line between the ending of winter and the nearing of spring. The transition between the two seasons stirs the most fierce conflict in the annual natural cycle - it is the transition between the dead winter season and the invigorating powers of the following seasons. That is why, namely in this period, rituals are performed to strengthen and ensure a triumph of vitality and fruitfulness. The first pruning of the vines for the season is the main ritual performed on February 14, when people gather in the vineyards outside the villages. Only the men can prune the vines, but women are not totally deprived of part-taking in the holiday observation. Women get up early in the morning, bake festive bread - loaves decorated with dough vines and grapes, roast a hen stuffed with grits (baked ground corn kernels), and put these all and a flask of wine in a woolen bag and see the men to the gate. Women also knead special round loaves - a symbol of the fertile field, and generously hand them out to neighbours and relatives. Men first go to the holiday church service and then head to the vineyards, taking a musician with them. The best vine-grower is the first to drink after pouring some wine on the ground with wishes for fertility. And so, the feast goes on until dark.

Valya, Valentina, Kristiyana, Nasya, Snezhana, Ashraf, on February 9, we will mark nine years since their suffering began. Sudden arrests in Libya and medieval torture with electricity and dogs have marked the worst trial for the past fifteen years - the one against the Bulgarian nurses in Tripoli.

These poor five women have been separated from their children and loved ones for eight years now. They are scared and desperate, but they are no longer alone! Their tragic fate united the Standart, BTV and the Darik Radio in an international humanitarian mission under the motto You Are Not Alone. We have already attracted the attention of the European Parliament to this mission and we have brought the “You Are Not Alone” sign into the Bulgarian National Assembly, as well

Rallies in defense of the Bulgarian nurses in Libya were organized in Sofia and across the country on February 9, on the initiative of the aforementioned three media. We gathered in front of Sofia’s National Palace of Culture and showed our sympathy for these poor women; then, we walked to the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, where we prayed together for the release of the nurses. We also sang the “You Are Not Alone” song for the first time, which was written by legendary musicians Mikhail Belchev and Stefan Dimitrov.

Unusually warm weather in Bulgaria is spoiling the plans of tourism companies for the winter season, Dnevnik daily said. Weathermen predict unchanged or even higher temperatures in January. The winter could be the hottest for the past 47 years in the whole of Europe. However, sun is always welcome in Varna and its surrounding resorts and villages. And this month the weather girls just say that the weather today is scorchyo.

You might have, but just in case, let me tell you what it’s all about. The Orthodox Church in Bulgaria celebrates days dedicated to all Saints. For example, on January 17 it is Saint Anthony’s Day (Antonovden), where celebrations are to protect people from illnesses. It is also the holiday of all who bear the name of Saint Anthony.

On this day women do not spin, knit and cook beans, corn and lentil, because they might make the diseases angry.

Legend has it that the twin brothers Anthony and Atanas were blacksmiths and were the first to invent the blacksmith’s tongs. Anthony’s Day is celebrated as a holiday of the blacksmiths, ironmongers, cutters and shoeing smiths.

People named after the saint Anthony (meaning “priceless” in Latin) - Antonia, Andon, Dona, Donka - celebrate their name day on January 17.

A pyramid of light was set to illuminate the sky above the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.

The top news is of course, that Bulgaria and Romania joined The European Union on New Year’s Day, helping to end geographic divisions left over from the Cold War and extending the borders of the now 27-member bloc eastward to the Black Sea.

Thousands of revelers gathered, Sunday night of 31st Dec last year, in the main square of Bulgaria’s national capital Sofia, at Battenberg Square, embracing and cheering when the clock struck midnight. EU flags fluttered overhead and fireworks lit up the sky. “We are home!” said a headline in a Bulgarian newspaper.

For Bulgaria, with a population of 7.7 million, and whose history is marked by conflicts with the Ottoman Empire and Soviet occupation, EU membership is also viewed as a source of economic and democratic stability. Bulgaria expects to receive as much as €661 million in the first year after entry.

Fireworks at the Varna city Nezavisimost Square.