Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 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

Bulgarian and Turkish Chief Prosecutors meet in Sofia

The Bulgarian and Turkish Chief Prosecutors, Borislav Sarafov and Muhsin Şentürk, held an official meeting in the Court House in Sofia . This is Muhsin Şentürk's first official visit to Bulgaria since taking office and follows the visit of a delegation..

published on 4/14/25 2:49 PM
Minister of Labour and Social Policy Borislav Gutsanov

Shadow economy 24% in Bulgaria, says Social Affairs Minister

Bulgarians, especially young people, need to understand that it is essential to have an employment contract to protect their labour rights, Labour and Social Policy Minister Borislav Gutsanov said in Varna. He noted that the informal economy in..

published on 4/14/25 2:40 PM
Dr. Tatyana Dolomanzhi

Five out of seven paediatricians leave Sofia city hospital

Five out of seven paediatricians at the capital's Fifth Multiprofile Hospital for Active Treatment "Knyaginya Klementina" have submitted their resignations over low salaries, said Dr Tatyana Dolomanzhi, a resident doctor at the health facility. The doctors,..

published on 4/14/25 1:43 PM