Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

Celebrating Todorovden with horse races

Photo: BGNES

Today is Todorovden, also called Horse Easter. As is the tradition, on this day horses are fed, after which horse races are organized. What is known as Todorov bread is baked, adorned with the figure of a stylized horseshoe and horse head.

Photo: BGNES

In iconography and in the folk calendar, St. Theodore Tyrone is depicted as a dragon-slayer on horseback, a symbol of victory against paganism. “There is a connection with the proto-Bulgarian ethnic element in the formation of a unified Bulgarian identity. Proto-Bulgarians were a horse-riding, warring people, hence the connection between Todorovden and the horse – a celestial intermediary between the lower and the higher realm,” says Iliya Valev from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Temperatures to drop on Sunday

Sunday will be mostly cloudy. Rain is expected in the Danube plain. In the Balkans - light snow. Daytime temperatures will fall with a minimum between minus 3° and 2°, in Sofia - around 0°, and a maximum of 3-5°C in the northeastern half of the country..

published on 11/9/24 7:05 PM

If we ignore what happened outside the National Theatre, it will become the norm, writers warn

The scriptwriters, authors and playwrights of the Bulgarian Association of Film, Television and Radio Screenwriters have condemned the aggression against spectators, actors, authors and staff of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre. In an open letter, they..

published on 11/9/24 4:45 PM
Илияна Йотова

Vice President Iliana Iotova: If President Radev had appointed the caretaker cabinets, the situation would be different

It is obvious that there is something wrong with the way the elections were held , Vice President Iliana Iotova told BNT. A few days ago, she described the newly elected 51st National Assembly as "illegitimate" because of the many signals of violations..

published on 11/9/24 12:23 PM