On Easter the Holy Fire arrived from the Holy Sepulcher to Bulgaria for all faithful in this country to rejoice. By tradition, a delegation of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Holy Synod made a trip to Jerusalem. On Saturday thousands of Orthodox Christians from across the world flocked to the Holy Sepulcher. The Bulgarian delegation lighted lanterns kept in a dedicated container on the plane’s flight back home. Priests from across Bulgaria were waiting at the airport to take away flames from the Holy Fire to various corners of the country.

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During the Holy Week, the news came that a Bulgarian church was going to be erected close to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In this way the dream of the Bulgarian community there will become reality. The church will rise in the courtyard of the Bulgarian Embassy located in the heart of Paris, and will be named after St. Patriarch Euthimius. The Bulgarian community in Spain is also looking forward to its own church in Madrid, in the courtyard of the Embassy. Its name will be Assumption and it will be the first Bulgarian church in Europe dedicated to the Holy Virgin. The Bulgarian community in Rome will soon have its church as well that will be built in the courtyard of the Bulgarian Embassy in the eternal city. Its patron will be St. Kliment Ohridski. The trickiest issue of building new Bulgarian churches abroad has to do with plot ownership, and in the quoted three cases this problem has been resolved.

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The songs of the Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte have been released for Easter. The two CDs with church chants are priced at 6 euros and are sold in churches across the country. Priests have specified that there is no profit from the CDs, as earnings from sales will go to cover production costs alone.

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Natural methods are very much in the vogue where dyeing Easter eggs is concerned. It turns out that we can successfully color eggs with onion peel, paprika, beetroot and even coffee. By tradition, the first egg is dyed in red. This can be done with oak bark, the way our grandmothers did. There are more options when we have to color eggs in green – nettles, spinach and walnut foliage. Attractive lilac eggs can be obtained using cabbage juice. In the meantime, Bachkovo Monastery in Southern Bulgaria has been vying for the Guinness Book of Records after five thousand eggs were colored in red at the monastery kitchen.

English version: Daniela Konstantinova