Lifestyle and Culture in Bulgaria
Bulgaria is a pretty old country and has a peculiarity in the fact it is the only European country that has not changed its name since it first established in 681 AD. Bulgaria has a very rich culture and history.
At a first encounter, it is easy to spot that Bulgarians give the ‘head nod/head shake’ a different meaning, for example, the head nod means ‘no’ while the head shake means ‘yes’; a typical contrast from how it is done around the world.
The main religion in Bulgaria is the Bulgarian Orthodox Christianity and with that, they celebrate over 200 name days that correspond with Christian saints. Name days in Bulgaria are a very huge deal and celebrated like birthdays amongst the people. Some names days are even national holidays as well.
In the month of March, Bulgarians traditionally celebrate the coming of spring for the entire month. The first day of March is a cultural holiday called ‘Baba Marta’ where they wear and give out ‘Martenitsas’ which are little bracelets or pin made out of red and white yarn. These emblems are worn to symbolize the beginning of spring. Bulgarians wear martenitsas up until they sight a stork or the first tree blossom.
The month of March is a very celebratory month for Bulgarians as their independence day is March 3rd. The alphabetic writing system, Cyrillic script was developed in Bulgaria. The Cyrillic script which now used around the world in countries such as Russia, Belarus, Khazakstan, etc, as their official writing alphabet, was first created by the 1st Bulgarian Empire.
Bulgaria is also very famous for its Bulgarian Yoghurt, argued by many gastronomists to be the best yogurt in the world. This yogurt is very unique to the country because of the use of a bacteria strain called ‘Lactobacillus Bulgaricus’ which can only be found in Bulgarian air.
Bulgaria is one of the world’s largest producers of roses, which have even become income generators for the country in that rose water, rose oil and some perfumes are made from the roses in Bılgaria. But interestingly, in the month of May and June, Bulgarians celebrate the annual rose festival.
The festival which is typically celebrated in the first week in June first took place in 1903 and has been held ever since. The festival is celebrated widely across the country with a beauty event where they crown a ‘Queen of roses’.
