Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Celebrating Todorovden with horse races

Photo: BGNES

Today is Todorovden, also called Horse Easter. As is the tradition, on this day horses are fed, after which horse races are organized. What is known as Todorov bread is baked, adorned with the figure of a stylized horseshoe and horse head.

Photo: BGNES

In iconography and in the folk calendar, St. Theodore Tyrone is depicted as a dragon-slayer on horseback, a symbol of victory against paganism. “There is a connection with the proto-Bulgarian ethnic element in the formation of a unified Bulgarian identity. Proto-Bulgarians were a horse-riding, warring people, hence the connection between Todorovden and the horse – a celestial intermediary between the lower and the higher realm,” says Iliya Valev from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

March marking the World Day of Rare Diseases takes place in Sofia

Relatives of patients suffering from rare diseases organized a march in Sofia on the occasion of the World Day of Rare Diseases. They call on the state to develop a National Plan for people with rare diseases. The march was attended by relatives and..

published on 2/22/25 6:16 PM

The Bulgarian Government strongly condemns desecration of EC building

The government strongly condemned the desecration of the European Commission building in Bulgaria in a Facebook post. "Attacks against institutions, whether national or European, are unacceptable and contradict the principles of the rule of law...

published on 2/22/25 4:31 PM

Tension rises during protest against the euro in central Sofia

A protest in defense of the Bulgarian lev and against Bulgaria's entry into the Eurozone began at noon in the center of Sofia. The organizers are the Vazrazhdane party and civil organizations. The participants are demanding a broad public debate on the..

published on 2/22/25 4:13 PM