The Latin name Julius designates the month of Julius Caesar (101–44 BC). This month and the one following it are devoted to historical personalities. Many emperors, like Nero for example, aspired for such honor but in vain. The old Bulgarians call the month “the hot one”.

 

1 July

Holiday: St. Vrach (vrach) 

This day (also a day of the Christian saints Kozma and Damyan) is considered a grand holiday and no one works on that day so that he does not get sick. People pay homage to popular healers – wise-women, sorceresses, hags and (CHAKRAKCHIA) spinning-wheel men. People sacrifice animals for health. Sick people visit curative springs and leave pieces of their clothes so the sickness could remain there and leave them alone for good. Long long ago, when the gods walked among men, there was a big river that divided the fields from the mountains and protected people from the evil forces that used to come out from beyond the mountain. On a hill, around a curve of the river, in a small house under a very old tree there lived a white-bearded old man and his daughter. The old man could speak with the birds and the animals and knew the secrets of all herbs so he could heal people. He was loved and respected like a god. Every day somebody would come to his place and bring presents, fruit and food. All people who lived nearby were healthy, merry, and lived happily ever after. But the master of the underground kingdom, who kept the souls of the dead locked away, got angry because the Death sent by him to Earth, often returned empty-handed because of the skills of that old man. The king tried sending messengers with hefty presents for the old man asking him to stop healing people. “Or you will be in real trouble!”, the messengers warned him. But the old man didn’t obey, returned the lavish presents and declared firmly that he had vowed to help people. The master of the underground kingdom got furious and sent an evil sorceress to punish the good healer. Strong winds started to blow, big fires flared up. An awful whirlwind blew by the river and destroyed the house on the hill. There, in the raging flames of the fire, the old healer embraced his daughter to protect her from the evil forces. But the sorceress turned him into a snake, and his daughter into a cup. Father and daughter, in an embrace, were turned into stone forever. They stand like this to this very day, turned by God into a symbol of the eternal power of medicine.

 

7 July

Nameday: Nedyalko, Nedyalka
Remind me

According to legends the seventh day, Sunday (nedelya), is under the sign of the Sun, which is the eye of God - blessing and giving health and fertility to people.

 

8 July

Holiday: Prokopi Pchelar (pro-copy pchee-lar) (Procopius the Beekeeper)

On this day every woman makes a grass bread, a ritual bread with a bee-hive engraved on it. It is known that the hive holds the bee family and for that reason this bread is given only to relatives to be healthy and to live long.
People also do not throw water among the bee-hives. The story goes that once upon a time a woman, coming back from the fields, prepared the dough for the bread, kneaded it, put it in the pan and threw it into the oven. While preparing the dinner it became dark outside so she threw out the leftover water through the door into the yard on the grass. She went to sleep but when she woke up in the morning her hands were red, swollen and covered with white blisters. She went to see the medicine man and he said that she must have thrown out night water on the fairies who get out at night and now her hands will dry up. Since then, leftover water is never thrown out during the night, it must be kept with three coals in it at home until the morning.

 

15 July

Nameday: Vladimir, Vladimira
Remind me

The name originates from an ancient word meaning ‘great ruler’.

 

16 July

Nameday: Yulian, Yulia
Remind me

After the name of the month of Emperor Guy Julius Caesar.

 

15–17 July

Holiday: Goreshtnitzi (go-resht-nee-tsee) (Hot Days)

These three black days, called goreshtnitzi, come in the summer the week after St. Athanasius the Harvester. The first one – 15 July, is Churuta, the second one – 16 July, is Parliga, and the third – 17 July, is Marina the Fiery . During these days people must observe certain restrictions - not to work in the fields, in the garden or at home, otherwise fire will fall from the skies and will burn the fields and the houses.
Churuta and Marina the Fiery were feared more than Parliga. On Churuta people put out the fire in every house and only on the third day, on Marina the Fiery, two twins light it up again at the village square rubbing lime-tree sticks with a spindle from hazel bush. They called it the new fire, the live fire from which all ovens were lit afterwards and which healed all illnesses in the world.
Bulgarians believe that St. Marina the Fiery keeps under lock all living creatures. Those people who pay her homage she sends small pests that do no harm but to those who doesn't she sends more harmful creatures. She was also believed to be a healer. On her day the sick bathe in hot thermal springs or take warm herbal baths. Then the sick tie a sign on a fruit tree by the spring: a thread or a piece of cloth from his clothes to “tie” the illness away from him.
This day is also a holiday for craftsmen who work with fire: blacksmiths, ironmongers, tinsmiths, coppersmiths and masters of pottery. The women bake breads, cover them with honey and give them out to the neighbors so that the men’s work is easy and fruitful.

 

17 July

Nameday: Marin, Marina
Remind me

The names mean firm, constant.

 

20 July

Holiday: Ilinden (e-lean-den) (St. Elija’s Day)
Nameday: Iliya, Iliana, Iliyan, Ilko, Ilka
Remind me

The holiday is connected with the Slavic god of thunder and lightning – Perun. Tradition requires that to honor Elija the Thunderer people must kill the oldest rooster - this makes the roosters in the house younger. Same thing happens with the “roosters” in the village – on this day is the inauguration of new eligible bachelors. When a lad decides that he is old enough to keep house and raise a family, the oldest bachelor in the village takes from the lad’s mother or female relative a new red sash and ritually girds it on the lad at the horo dance in the village center that evening . The bachelor holds one end of the sash, the lad takes the other end, puts it on his chest and starts turning around until the sash is girded on. Meanwhile the old bachelor blesses: “E-hey! As this sash is winding round, so the lasses wind round you!” “Amen!” say the others and the twisted horo dance starts. The old bachelor introduces the lad into the horo and he acquires the status of a bachelor who can flirt with the lasses without being funny in the eyes of the other young men. Then people go to the church to eat together. Young women don’t wash themselves on that day because they are afraid the Dragon will fall in love with the one who has. In addition to those bearing the name of the saint, this is the day of curriers, furriers, makers of packsaddles and tiles.

 

27 July

Holiday: Panteleevden (pan-tey-lay-eff-den) (St. Pantheleimon’s Day)

People call Saint Pantheleimon “Panteley the Traveler”. Pantheleimon means ‘all merciful’ in Greek. People pay homage to him to prevent heavy rains and floods. This is also the day of fortune-tellers, witches and healers, for Saint Pantheleimon was a great healer of all illnesses. Bulgarians believe that on St. Pantheleimon’s Day swallows and storks get together to start on their way south

 

31 July

Holiday: Bogorodichni zagovezni (bo-go-roe-ditch-nee zah-go-vez-nee) (Virgin Mary’s Shrovetide)

People prepare a Shrovetide bread which is broken apart in pieces and never cut. Meals are with meat. In some places people fast the following three to purify their bodies and souls.