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

MPs reject proposal for easing the conditions for referendums

The National Assembly rejected the proposal of ITN for easing the conditions for holding referendums with changes to the Citizens' Direct Participation in Central Government and Local Self-government Act. 81 MPs voted "for", 30 were..

published on 9/19/24 3:49 PM

Ahmed Dogan will participate in the elections with "Alliance for Rights and Freedoms" coalition

The honorary leader of DPS, Ahmed Dogan, visited the headquarters of the party in Sofia to hold consultations for the lists of candidates for MPs for the upcoming parliamentary elections, the party's press center announced. "Ahmed..

published on 9/19/24 2:33 PM
North Macedonian Deputy PM Aleksandar Nikoloski

Politicians in Bulgaria call for resignation of North Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski

GERB leader Boyko Borissov has called for the resignation of North Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski because of his insults towards Bulgaria: "We will do everything necessary for the European People's Party to know..

published on 9/19/24 12:21 PM