The Orthodox Church celebrates the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The holiday celebrates the miraculous finding of the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. It is one of the 12 major Christian holidays of the year.
When the cross was discovered, it revived a dead boy, and since then Christians believe that if they seek God's mercy on this day, they will be cured of any disease. Folk custom connects the day with the beginning of autumn when the grape harvest begins. In the Rhodopes, thousands of believers gather with a prayer for healing in the area "Krastova gora" (Forest of the Cross) near Asenovgrad the night before the holiday.
For Bulgarians, Krastovden is also connected with the beginning of the last stage of the Ilinden - Preobrazhenie Uprising, when in 1903 the rebellion against the Ottoman rule covered the region of Pirin Macedonia and Serres.
Batak is a name every Bulgarian remembers with deference and pain because the fate of the small town in the Rhodopes is scarred by one of the bloodiest events in national memory – the Batak massacre. During the first days after the outbreak of..
There is a map which helped usher in the birth of modern Bulgaria during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. The Austro-Hungarian researcher Felix Kanitz (1829 – 1904) was the first West European to have travelled to more than 3,200 towns and villages..
On 3 March, Bulgaria celebrates the 147th anniversary of its liberation f rom five centuries of Ottoman rule. The day was declared a national holiday in 1990 by a decision of the National Assembly. The Treaty of San Stefano, signed on 19 February..
Passion Week is the last week before Easter. It is also the most austere week of fasting at the end of the long Great Lent, which prepares the faithful for..
Holy Tuesday is a day for teachings and final moral instructions. On this day the priests and the Jews listen for the last time to the teaching words..
Overcast, rain
Cloudy
Scattered showers