The month is called Malak Sechko. The name comes from very old times and literally means Little Slasher. It is a month for repentance, dedicated to the god of death – Februus. In the Bulgarian folk calendar the first three days of the month are known as Trifuntzi and are thought to be the symbolic mythical link between the dead ancestors and the coming fruitful year.

 

1 February

Holiday: Trifon Zarezan (trih-phon zah-reh-zahn)
Nameday: Tryphon, Trifon
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According the classic Bulgarian folk calendar the first Trifunetz is the first spring festival. On this day celebrate all vine-growers, gardeners and pub-keepers. The holiday is a proud successor to the days dedicated to the Thracian god of joy and wine Dionysus. The day is also called “the noseless”. An ancient legend tells the story how Virgin Mary spelled a curse on Trifon for making fun of her - he was supposed to cut his nose himself. At that time the nose was a symbol of masculinity and it was wide known that the bigger the nose the bigger the manhood of a man. On the very same, as Trifon was cutting the vines in preparation for the spring, his hand slipped and his cutter chipped off his nose.

On this day, very early in the morning the woman of the house makes trifonski bread then kills a black hen and cooks it. After a sunrise everybody starts singing songs and accompanied by music, heads for the vineyards. Each vineyard owner digs around his largest vine, pours red wine on the roots three times and then feeds them with bread at four ends - one for each of the cardinal points. He also spreads some ash and cuts three sticks off the vine. He twines them into a wreath, ties it with a red thread, crosses himself three times and utters a blessing: May this year be prosperous! Let’s gather a full bushel from each vine, let’s pour a bucket of wine out of every stump so that it flows over the threshold! Then everybody sits down next to the vines and eats. The man who has produced the largest quantity of wine throughout the year is pronounced the king of wine and is blessed by the last year's king. Then, singing and dancing, driving the king in an open carriage or carrying him by hands so that his legs do not touch the ground as he is the messenger of God, they all head for the king’s house where the festivities last through the night.

Trifon also means ‘he who loves joy and pleasure’.

 

2 February

Holiday: Petlyovden (Rooster’s Day)

The second Trifunetz is called Rooster’s Day and is considered a holiday for both straight and gay men. When a prophet predicted that King Irod will be dethroned by a man just recently born, he tried to defend his throne by killing all infants in his kingdom. His people marked with a red spot every door of a house with a baby in it. To defend her son, a mother painted the doors of all neighbors with the blood from the cut head of a rooster, forging the sign and confusing the king's mercenaries.

The rooster in Christian and pre-Christian cultures is the image of the herald of sunrise. It is related to the notion of resurrection of the dead, a symbol of the ever-thriving life.

 

3 February

Holiday: Semen den (seh-men den) (Seed’s Day)

The third Trifunetz is called Holy Mother day by Bulgarians all over the world. It is believed that if a woman wants to have a child, she must make and share shtipana pitka, a pinched corn bread. The way to prepare it is easy - when the dough is ready, before putting it in the oven, the woman draws a cross on it then pinches it with two fingers all over and puts four dough balls pierced with a spindle on the four ends of the cross. The bread is then baked and is offered to strangers at crossroads. When someone takes a piece of the bread they must cross once for themselves and once for the woman who gave them food, and say: This year pinched bread in your hand, next year – dear child in your heart!

 

4 February

Nameday: Zhelyazko
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Zheljasko means 'made of iron'. Iron is a symbol of strength and firmness.

 

10 February

Holiday: Chuminden (choo-mihn-den) (Plague Day) (St. Haralampius)
Nameday: Valentin, Valentina
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On this day women prepare a ritual bread with a big wreath made of dough and holes in four places – at the four cardinal points, like a cross. While the bread is being baked, the woman of the house sanctifies a dish of honey in the church and spreads the honey on the bread. Then she fumigates it with four grains of incense, over a plowshare or a roof-tile, and breaks it up in four pieces. One piece she leaves at home, the other three she takes to three different neighbors. It is believed doing this she protects the house and the family against the plague.

People celebrate this day in honor of the livestock. Early in the morning each housewife prepares dough for the kravai (ritual buns) that are prepared on this day. When the buns are ready, the man of the house takes the oxen out and combs them. Then the woman comes out of the house with the the buns in a sieve and puts them on the horns of the oxen. The man then takes the animals to the river, takes off the the buns, dips them into the running water, breaks them up and feeds the animals. This is done so they are healthy all year round. After coming back from the river the man summons the whole family and they all eat lunch. While eating the children moo and kick like the cattle and the man of the house says a blessing: May Vlas drag himself, drag himself deep down the earth but may he not take away from our house. The others reply and believe that during the whole year people and animals will be healthy.

The name Valentin comes from the Latin Valentinus and means ‘strong, robust’.

 

14 February

Holiday: Zadushnitza (zah-douche-knee-tsa) (All Souls’ Day)

This is the first All Souls’ Day of the year. People go to church, light candles and share meals that the deceased from their family liked the most. It is very important to prepare ahead for this day, and as it approaches to start mentioning the names of the deceased more and more often. All Souls’ Day and the days preceding it are for mentioning only the good deeds that people have done. During these days men don’t drink and are careful not to speak evil of those who are no longer among them.

On the evening before Zadushnitza women boil wheat with sugar and go to bed early so they get up before sunrise the next day and go to the graveyard to pay homage to the dead. There they pour wine on the graves, clean them and give out what food. They sit down in silence looking at the heap of earth that separates them from the beloved person as though they don’t believe in death. Bulgarians have a strange way of thinking. They take death as a temporary phenomenon, like life, which is also temporary. This is similar to the four seasons with the change of which life dies and is reborn. So much like the seasons leave wheat in the barns, a man must leave memories of himself in other people’s minds.

This holiday have become popular in recent years due to the increasing influence of the Catholic St. Valentine. Bulgarian nameday for Valentin is on February, 10th.

 

15 February

Holiday: Mesni Zagovezni (mess-knee zah-gov-ehz-knee) (the second Sunday before Lent)

During the meat fasting people are not supposed to eat meat so the meals on this day mostly contain meat. In the week following this day, it's common for people to eat a lot of cheese, butter and eggs but no meat. This is also the last week when the young people can go to the village commons, sing and dance the horo.

Bulgarians are very strict about observing the fast, this strict observation is supported by a cycle of rituals and rules called zagovyavane (starting the fast) and otgovyavane (breaking the fast). Zagovyavane is a whole series of practices that introduce a man into different levels of restrictions and otgovyavane is the return to the world of temptations and chaos. Fasting in cosmogonic folk mythology has its origins in the interchanging of chaos and order. From an aesthetic and biological point of view fasting is connected to the rituals of seasonal transition and bringing biological processes of man in harmony with the nature. The social aspect of fasting illustrates the traditional folk concepts of cyclic birth and death in nature. In the ancient cultures fasting is practiced as a form of a voluntary restriction, repentance for bad thoughts and deeds and mobilization of the spirit and the body to overcome future difficulties. Temporary abstinence from certain foods and actions during fixed periods of time is a way to purify one's body and to attain spiritual and physical perfection. Of course behind all this one can see the true importance of fasting as a way of cleansing the body from harmful and toxic elements that have accumulated due to poor food quality over the winter.

The Easter fast which starts with this holiday, is the longest. It lasts seven weeks and ends on Easter. The second longest fast is the Christmas fast – 40 days.

 

22 February

Holiday: Sirni Zagovezni (seer-knee zah-gov-ehz-knee) (the first Sunday before Lent)

This is one of the favorite spring holidays in Bulgaria. It always comes on a Sunday – seven weeks before Easter. The Sirni Zagovezni week is accompanied by many rituals that promise to bring fertility, prosperity, and health. On Tuesday and Thursday before sunrise, and on Sunday at sunset young and old get together in the village commons and dance quick horo. In the evening young people start fires, shoot arrows and swirl fire-lit hoops while muttering incantations for health and longevity for all their relatives and friends.

This behavior (called Gora, i.e. forest) is believed to stimulate the earth to produce more wheat and cotton. Young people build fires, shoot arrows in the sky and celebrate by swirling fiery hoops and at the same time singing and praying for health and long live for all relatives and friends. They also ask for pardon from the elderly. In the evening, when everyone is gathered around the table, people ask for pardon from each other. Then the owner hangs a red thread on one of the ceiling beams and his wife ties a piece of coal, a hardboiled egg, and some cheese to the other end. Then she swings it to the right in a circle while everyone is trying to take a bite. The one who catches the coal will care for home, the one who catches the egg will have luck and the one who gets the cheese will live the longest. Then they burn the thread and try to read from the ashes whose harvest will be the richest.

 

23 February

Holiday: Kukerovden (koo-kehr-off-dehn) (Mummers’ Day)

This is the first day of St. Theodore’s week in which people symbolically hang dogs. According to the belief, hanging dogs protects against rabbis. People also start dancing the Mummer dances. The mummers, young men in disguise, visit all houses in the village and owners give them generous presents. After they visit the last house, the group of mummers symbolically ploughs and sows the village square, driving evil away and bringing happiness and prosperity to the village. The mummer bride or hadjibaba says a blessing: Listen all! Where mummer dances are danced let there be health and prosperity! Let your gold coins be as many as the threads in my shirt, let your children be as many as the bees in the hive, let the voices in your house be as many as the sand in the sea! Let evil be buried deep into the ground and let good reign! The day and the celebrations then end with a winding horo in the village square.

There is an old legend that says that long time ago the land of the Bulgarians was like the Garden of Eden. It opened lavishly its womb and gave people the fruits of their labor. They all lived happily, ruled by a good and wise ruler called Dobrodor, i.e. good-doer. He respected and lived with peace with the other neighboring rulers. The daughter of the ruler of the country to the Northern, Zliana, was in love with Dobrodor but he loved another. Zliana decided to take revenge. She cast a vicious magic - if a man starts tilling the field he will die before going back home that day. So it happened and many people died. It was almost spring time and the earth, all dried up, needed to be worked on, ploughed and sown. The king was ill with sorrow as he did not know what to do. His old farther, a very wise man, summoned all men in the kingdom and ordered half of them to skin the dead animals and put on their skins. He then ordered the other half to dress in women’s clothes, string bells round their waists. Then he told everyone into the fields, put the "animals" in the harness and driven by the "women" to plough the land. This way the magic of evil Zliana could not affect them. They successfully finished tilling and sowing outwitting the evil which, who burst with spite. Ever since then this day is considered a holiday. Since then, when the spring is coming, the bells start ringing and men get together. They dress in women’s clothes, put masks on their faces and begin blessing the earth for fertility and prosperity.

The other days of the week are described as black. Black Tuesday – also called dry, deaf, cold, is the worst of all Tuesdays in the year. Mad Wednesday is observed as protection against madness. On crazy Thursday women don’t spin the wool, to protect people against dizziness and madness. Black Friday is considered the worst of all 12 Black Fridays during the year. Women on that day don’t wash themselves, don’t comb their hair and don’t touch the spindle. It is only on Saturday when the holiday can be celebrated.

 

23–25 February

Holiday: Trimiro (tree-mee-roh)

Typical for this period is that people do not eat anything for three days – no food is allowed, not even water. The Trimiro lasts Monday through Wednesday following Sirni Zagovezni. On Wednesday morning people go to church, receive Holy Communion and then go home where they feed all relatives and neighbors. The connection between the Trimiro and the cult of the dead is obvious. Bulgarians believe that a man fasts in order for his soul to be well in the world beyond. It is believed that in the other world each person gets bread and water. But in order to get them he needs to give them out to other people after the Trimiro. That is why on Wednesday the table contains meatless dishes - boiled wheat, fresh bread, beans, stewed fruit - and bread and water is given to the guests. The guests also bring presents and hand them out saying May you be alive and healthy so that you can celebrate the Trimiro next year again

People believe that by not eating for three days their sins will be absolved and they will go to Heaven. There is also the belief that by fasting they pay off their mother’s milk and his own birth. The Trimiro is observed by people of all ages, but those who fast keep it in secret. The ritual of fasting is performed three, five, seven or nine years in succession or three times in one’s lifetime. If during the three days of fast one feels faint, he is allowed to sip some soup of boiled wheat (RECIPE) or fruit. According to the popular belief, the one who fasts "dies" and then is born again. A man who dies during the Trimiro is considered to be the greatest sinner and he's not buried in a graveyard. It is believed that such people become vampires.