On the first day of January, the Christian Orthodox church commemorates St. Basil the Great, patron saint of charity and good deeds. A prominent Christian philosopher and thinker, he is the author of many theological works, including a liturgy bearing his name, performed at Sunday service during Lent and on the day of St. Basil.
Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte will take part in a divine liturgy today at the St. Alexander Nevski cathedral in Sofia, after which he will perform a solemn church service for the New Year.
In folklore tradition, there is one enduring ritual performed on the day of St. Basil or Vassilyovden, called Surva, which is still practiced in our day. For this ritual a survachka is used – intertwined cornel twigs, a symbol of health and endurance. The twigs are decorated using woolen threads of different colours, red apples, popcorn, dried fruit etc., and are then used to tap friends, relatives and neighbours on the back with wishes for health, happiness and prosperity. Masquerade games with groups of masked men or kukeri are organized in many parts of Bulgaria for banishing evil.
There are 137,000 Bulgarians who celebrate their name day today – all people called Vassil, Vassilka, Vassilena, Vesselin, Vesselina, Vessela.
At 11.00 a.m. today, President Rumen Radev will hand over a mandate to form a government to the candidate for prime minister, nominated by the second largest parliamentary group in the 50th National Assembly - that of "We Continue the Change-Democratic..
Clouds will temporarily break by midnight. Sunny weather will prevail across most of the country on Monday before midday. Around and after noon, clouds will develop again. There will be brief showers of rain accompanied by thunder in places, more..
I nterior Minister Kalin Stoyanov and Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev today visited the heavily fire-affected village of Voden and expressed their gratitude to the Turkish firefighters who took part in fighting the wildfires in Yambol region . They,..
A total of 60 officers from the Bezmer and Kabile units are on the ground with equipment for firefighting, Bulgaria's Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov..
A man and a child have died after they were struck by lightning in the area of Mount Zhultets near Mount Botev in the Central Balkan Mountains. The alert..
The best Bulgarian students in mathematics have won 5 medals by participating in the most prestigious mathematics competition in the world for 2024. At..
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