December is the twelfth month in the Roman calendar. According to the Bulgarian folklore calendar this month bears the beautiful name of prosinetz., which means shining, glowing. Legends tell that during this month the day begins to glow or to grow and become brighter.

 

4 December

Holiday: Varvara (var-vara) (St. Varvara’s Day)
Nameday: Varvara
Remind me

St. Varvara’s Day sets the beginning of the winter holidays in Bulgaria. On this day the woman of the house bakes small “buns” for the young boys and "dolls" for the young girls. She boils wheat, corn, and beans and gives them out to the neighbors for health and for the mercy of Granny Measles so that the children could stay healthy. The day is also called Women’s Christmas since only women and young girls can take part in the celebrations.

 

5 December

Holiday: Sava (St. Sava’s Day)
Nameday: Slavka, Slav, Sava
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Some legends say that this is the holiday of saint Androgin. That is why in some villages Sava is a woman, a saint, sister of Varvara and Nicholas. In other places, Sava is a man, protector of wolves, also called “wolf herd”. On this day barren women get up very early and sift flour with a new sift, tuned upside down. The oldest woman in the house pronounces the words: “Turn the sift, my child, and your belly will be turned.” Women also believe that if they give out the ritual bread at crossroads, the barren women will have children within a year. Sava comes from the Old Greek word for Saturday, which also means foreseeing.

 

6 December

Holiday: Nikulden (knee-cool-den) (St. Nicholas’ Day)
Nameday: Nikolina, Nikola, Nikolay, Kolyo
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The day is dedicated to St. Nicholas, patron of water. St. Nicholas reigns over the seas, the rivers, the lakes and the whole underwater world – fishes, storm-demons, mermaids and nymphs. He is a white-bearded old man who helps sailors in trouble. A legend tells how St. Nicholas saved a ship from sinking - he corked the whole in the bottom of the ship with a live carp. That is why people must have carp on the table that day. The other dishes must be vegetarian– sarmi, peppers and legumes. After lunch, the table must remain as is and not be cleaned up the whole day. The woman of the house keeps the head bone from the carp, called “the cross”, and uses it as an amulet against bad luck and diseases. The Old Greek Nike means ‘victory, victor’.

 

9 December

Holiday: Aninden (an-in-den) (St. Anna’s Day)
Nameday: Anna
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Ana means ‘blessing’ in Hebrew. According to the legend, Saint Anna is the mother of Virgin Mary and protector of marriage, the family, virginity, pregnant women and the widows. Women don’t work on this day and men don’t leave the village so mermaids don’t fall in love with them. In the evening, men burn dry ox dung in front of their doors in order to drive away evil spirits from the house. Women rub the udders of cows, sheep and goats with wood ashes, garlic and fat. The poultry birds are kept closed to protect them from evil spells. The young girls put a plate with salt and wheat under the oven, cover it with a white cloth and in feed the cattle with it in the morning for health. On this day people watch who will come by their house first. If it is a man the newborn animals during the year will be male, if it's a woman, they will be female. It's women who usually visit the neighbors first. This is the day of all medicine men and women.

 

12 December

Holiday: Spiridonovden (spee-ree-don-off-den) (St. Spiridon’s Day)
Nameday: Spiridon
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This holiday is also called “Conception”. It is mostly observed by women who will give birth soon. The young brides who want to get pregnant bathed themselves in hot herbal water. Legend tells a story that a long time ago, the other saints did not recognize Spiridon as a saint for he was arrogant and dressed like a rich man. One day they were all going to pay their respect to God, and decided to stay at a small inn overnight. There, they bribed the host to behead Spiridon's horse and his servant's donkey. In the morning as the rest of the saints were getting ready to go, Spiridon’s servant stood dumbfounded before the dead animals. Then Spridon whispered in his ear: “Don’t be afraid. Put their heads back on and they will be alive again.” Indeed, the moment the servant put the heads back on, the animals got up ready to go, full of energy. The other saints saw the miracle and recognized Spiridon as a saint. No one noticed that in the hurry the servant had put the horse’s head to the body of the donkey and the donkey’s head to the body of the horse though.
Professional day for all shoemakers.

 

17 December

Holiday: Danilovden (daneel-off-den) (Daniel’s Day)
Nameday: Danail, Daniel, Daniela
Remind me

In Christian legends Daniel was thrown in the pit with the lions, where they instead of tearing him to pieces, started licking him friendly.
This day is celebrated by all pregnant women. They bake breads and give them out to the neighbors so they stay fertile and give birth easily.

 

20 December

Holiday: Ignazhden (eeg-naj-den)
Nameday: Ignat
Remind me

This day marks the beginning of the New Year celebration days. On the evening before, the woman of the house prepares the table for Ignazhden – vegetarian dishes. She also bakes a big bun and the first guest of the house in the morning must split above the table. Then the woman takes some of the boiled wheat and corn, tastes some of it, and throws the rest over the fire for the chicken to fly freely and the wheat to grow high. Then she says: “As much coal in the oven, so much prosperity during the year!”. If the holiday table is rich then the hosts will be twice as rich. The woman of the house also makes a circle of a man’s sash POJAS??? in the yard and within it she feeds the chicken so that they don’t go to other people’s yards. She makes sure that hens lay eggs in their own nests for in the mythology of the old Bulgarians the egg as a symbol of the world and as such the egg must remain in the house. On this day people are careful to bring things to the house and not to take anything out of the house. It is also recommended to carry a coin in your pocket.
Ignat means fire in Latin.

 

22 December

Holiday: Anastasiovden (a-nas-tas-yoff-den) (St. Anastasia’s Day)

On this day Bulgarians honor Nastasya the Deadly, a mythological personification of Death. Old people say that if Nastasya gets angry, she will make the houses black. That is why on this day women don’t do housework. They make breads of wheat, cover them with honey and give them out to the neighbors to commemorate the deceased and to protect against the plague.

 

24 December

Holiday: Badni vecher (bud-nee vech-er) (Christmas Eve)
Nameday: Evgeni, Evgenia
Remind me

Early in the morning the woman of the house prepares a ritual bread called Bogovitza. The young girls bake buns which they give to the carol-singers, the ones they love. They also make a nosegay of box-tree branches and a TRESKA from a log from the Christmas fire and tie it with a red thread. In the patriarchal Bulgarian house there is a custom - straw is spread on the floor of the dining-room before the holiday table is set. On top of it people spread the Christmas Eve cloth, called trapeznik, and arrange 7, 9 or 12 meatless dishes. When the whole family gathers, the woman of the house burns some incense through the house and the dinner begins early so that the wheat ripens early. When sitting at table, each person moves from left to right to make place for the dead relatives. They also leave a little food from all dishes for them. The oldest man breaks the “Bogovitza” bread over the head of a young child who then jumps three times. The man gives a piece to everyone but leaves one piece in a high place so that children, plants and animals can grow tall. During dinnertime you must not get up as hens don’t get up from their eggs. If someone needs to get up, they must walk PREVEDEN so that the wheat turns good and heavy with grain. It is believed that luck goes to the person who first sneezes at the table - the man of the house gives them the firstborn ewe. Young people hide the first morsel of the meal under their pillows and believe that whoever appears in their dreams that night will be their partner in life. Then people perform ancient rituals of reading fortune on walnuts, wheat, flour and coals, and everybody waits to hear the clear voice of the bagpipe and the joyful song of the young carol-singers:

Get up, Staninine, get up, master, For good guests are coming, good guests for Christmas, They’re bringing good news, good news for Christmas, From God we bring you health, and from all of us – joy…

The preparations of the carol-singers begin during the Christmas fast. They are all bachelors. They get together at St. Nicholas’ Day and go to the house of the man who will be asked to be staninik  – leader of the carol-singers. The staninik is a married man who knows all the songs and rituals very well. The carol-singers walk and sing in pairs. Two men begin the song, called chougari, the next two catch up and usually repeat the same stanza. There are two groups of four men who take turns in singing and two young boys – “apprentices” or “donkeys” who learn the songs from the older men and carry the buns they receive as gifts. The second in importance in the group is the blesser, also called murmarin, priest or doctor. He pronounces the blessing (vrachuvka). The group is accompanied by a piper who plays only when the kuda moves from house to house and the men are not singing. In each house the carol-singers sing a song for the man of the house. The words are a blessing for health, prosperity and good life. Carol-singing ends on Christmas morning after all houses have been visited.
Evgeni, Evgenia, from Hebrew, mean ‘decent’.

 

25-27 December

Holiday: Koleda (koh-led-dah) (Christmas)
Nameday: See below
Remind me

Bulgarians celebrate Christmas for three days. On the first day, they go to church and then gather in the village square for a bidding for the buns baked by the girls. It is an honor for any young man, who loves a girl, to buy off her bun from the staninik, no matter how expensive it is.
Folk legends say that if you borrow salt on Christmas and forget to return it, you will have trouble with your eyes. Another saying tells that if your ear aches on Christmas, an angel has passed by you - you have to cross yourself thrice and your wishes will come true. Children must not play with fire on Christmas for they will wet their bed through the entire year. One must also not count the stars that night or their hands will cover with warts..
After the long Christmas fasting, after church, people eat one of the Christmas offerings – the pig. Pork is one of the oldest food known to Bulgarians. Virgil writes that when Aeneas disembarked his ship at Latium, he came across a pig with piglets. He then killed them and made ZHERTVA to the Gods (he became known as "pious Aeneas"). But like all ancient people, what he actually offered the Gods was only the blood and the smoke above the altar; the pork he ate himself.
For a long time pork was through to be food of the poor. The rich used only selected parts of the animal – the hind legs, the head and the tail..
An interest fact is that old Bulgarian myths identify Adonis with wheat, and the snout of the wild boar which kills him, with the SYRP. The seed is “killed” but after “death” a new life is born - this is the natural cycle of agriculture, of the plant and the animal world. For that reason in old frescoes and mosaics, the pig is a symbol of fertility. In Old Greek the word for “pig” means “womb”. It is often present in myths about death and resurrection. Naturally, with the years it lost its importance as a symbol and became a domestic animal that satisfies the gastronomic tastes at many Bulgarian holiday tables.
This is the nameday of all whose name begins with R – Radka, Radko, Radostin, Radost, Russi, Rumen, Rumyana.
The second day is the day of those who have the names of Hristo, Hristina, Yosif.
The third day of Christmas is Stefan’s Day. Nameday of Stefan, Stefanka, Stoil, Stoyan, Stoyanka, Stanimir. The ones who have a nameday are given gifts and are bathed. People sing songs and play the horo dance.

 

25 December – 6 Januaryy

Holiday: Mrasni dni (Mrus-knee dnee) (Dirty Days)

In some parts of the country they are also called karakondjol days or poganni. The myths tell a story about how during these days the Earth is visited by evil spirits – vampires, goblins and bugbears, who come to suck the blood of the slaughtered pigs and do evil to people. During this period, people don’t engage, wed, commemorate or organize any ceremonies. They put a clove of garlic in the children’s clothes to protect them during the day.