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Vasil Levski Revisited

Visiting the Vasil Levski Bulgarian Sunday School in Leeds ‎

Children are writing essays entitled "What would I do if I were Levski"

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Photo: Vasil Levski Bulgarian Sunday School in Leeds

There are no exact statistics on the number of Bulgarians living in the English city of Leeds. However, we know that there, as well as in other cities in Great Britain, there is a Bulgarian Sunday school named "Vasil Levski". Established in 2016, today it already has its own branch in the neighboring city of Hull. The total number of students in both places is 110.

As in other similar Bulgarian cultural centres abroad, the school management cares very much about the observance of various Bulgarian traditions, marks and celebrates important dates, anniversaries and personalities from Bulgarian history. Among them, of course, is the Bulgarian Apostle of Freedom to whose work and self-sacrifice for Bulgaria's freedom they dedicate an entire week. Over the years, the school has organized various contests - for a drawing and an essay dedicated to the Apostle, and we learn more details about the initiatives with which the students become familiar with his importance by the principal of the Vasil Levski Sunday school, Svetlana Ivanova. ‎

"Last year we did something different because we were invited to join the national initiative of the Vasil Levski Secondary School in Karlovo, which wanted to present the activities of all the schools that want to join, marking the anniversary of his death of Vasil Levski, regardless of whether they are in Bulgaria or abroad", the school principal recalls. "Our activity in both educational institutions was carried out in the form of a Sportiade between the students. In several rounds, there were also physical and intellectual games. The children had a lot of fun, because they were divided into teams, but everything was intertwined with things related to the life of Vasil Levski and his deeds.


Some of them were related to a physical competition for the longest jump, others to the arrangement of a puzzle in order to show one of the most famous portraits of Vasil Levski.The aim of another game was to arrange several thoughts of Vasil Levski, of course, divided into different parts, and they had to remember who they were in order to complete different texts with missing data. But the children did a great job and it was a lot of fun because they used both physical and intellectual means to show their knowledge of Vasil Levski".‎


The school is attended by children between 5 and 12-13 years old, and the teachers strive to provide them with information about the personality and work of Vasil Levski in the most accessible and understandable way for them, taking into account their age characteristics. According to Svetlana, the most interesting for them is the topic of how he died:

"Their most interesting topic is related to the fact that to this day it is still not known where the remains of Vasil Levski's body are. It was also very interesting for the younger ones that they saw live, albeit in a video connection , the blonde strand of hair from Vasil Levski when he was getting his hair cut, and they felt extremely curious because they know how many years have passed since then. Such small details are interesting to them. Otherwise, we still cannot explain to the younger ones how to understand the great ideals that he professed."‎


In the next week, the students will submit their essays on the topic "If I were Levski, what would I do in his place". ‎

During her conversations with the students, Svetlana periodically raises the topic of those things from Bulgaria that the students miss the most. ‎She receives different answers – the fruits, the vegetables, the warm weather, ‎the freedom to play outside until late…. However, there are also children who were born in Great Britain or from mixed marriages and it is very difficult for them to determine exactly what their homeland is. 


Svetlana gives an example with her own daughter:

"Although her father and I are Bulgarians, we visit Bulgaria every year and try to raise her with Bulgarian values, I was very surprised when her teacher in her class assigned them to make a poster to tell about their hometown. She quite spontaneously said: ‎"My hometown is here in Leeds", says Mrs. Ivanova. "In some of the children, a split appears. They know where mommy and daddy's hometown is, but for them it is not their homeland, but they accept it and we try to explain to them that one's homeland is what gives you joy, happiness, that makes mom and dad smile when we go there, when we speak Bulgarian, when we celebrate holidays and rituals and customs ."‎


Some of the parents have already stated that they will return to Bulgaria and have even set a date, but the truth is that in order for the children to know their homeland, it is important for the parents to explain and tell them more about it and stimulate them to communicate more with their relatives who are waiting for them in Bulgaria.


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English publication by Rositsa Petkova


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