October in the Roman calendar is the eighth month of the year. Old people call it “Mitro’s month” or “fall of the leaf”. In Thrace, the autumn till St. Demetrius’ Day is called “Grandmother’s summer” which is harvest time. This is the reason why the holidays are not so many.

 

10 October

Nameday: Filip
Remind me

Filip means 'one, who loves horses’ from Old Greek.

 

14 October

Holiday: Petkovden (pet-cove-den) (St. Petka’s Day)
Nameday: Petkana, Petrana, Penka, Petko
Remind me

On the day of Saint Petka it is forbidden to spin and knit. In our folk mythology she is the aunt of Saint Demetrius. On this day children must not take baths and it is believed that anyone who does not fast on the Friday before this holiday, may drown.

 

18 October

Nameday: Zlatko, Zlatka (means 'gold')
Remind me

Gold jewels are polished so as to bring happiness and luck to their owners.

 

26 October

Holiday: Dimitrovden (dim-ei-rove-den) (St. Demetrius’ Day)
Nameday: Dimitar, Dimitrina, Dimo, Dima, Mitko, Mitra
Remind me

St. Demetrius’ Day is one of the most respected holidays in Bulgaria. According to legend, Saint Demetrius is the protector of the Winter and the cold weather and is the elder brother of Saint George. He rides a red horse and has a long white beard, from which falls the snow. In Northern Bulgaria the holiday is also called Razpust (Dismissal Day) because on this day local and foreign farmhands were dismissed and arrangements were made for next year. The best of them received new clothes, a ram or an ewe.
On this day old Bulgarians from the Sea of Azov region read the moon. If it formed a complete circle, they believed that spring will come early and the bees will fill the beehives. Around St. Demetrius’ Day building new houses must be completed. Owners and neighbors give gifts to the masons, and the master-builder shouts a mason’s blessing for health and prosperity over a big wooden cross put on the roof. The ritual requires the host to kill a white ram and invite the whole village to the new house.
Most respected is St. Demetrius’ Day by those with names like Dimitar, Dimitrina, Dimo, Dima, Mitko, Mitra. In Bulgaria, you need not be invited in order to visit the house of someone who has a nameday. You must bring white flowers which symbolize the mellow winter. The flowers must be tied with a red thread so that the man or the woman having a nameday is white and red (healthy) during the whole year.

 

27 October

Holiday: Mishinden (mish-in-den) (Mouse Day)

The day is honored mainly by women. They do not do household work so that mice do not harm the house and the grain. They sew up the front and the back of their skirts as a symbolical “sewing up” of the mice’s eyes.