Bulgaria Celebrates its National Awakening Day

Bulgaria celebrates the Day of the People's Awakeners (National Awakening Day) on November 1st.

The holiday marks the work of the Bulgarian educators, writers and revolutionaries - awakeners of the reviving national spirit, striving for education and literature. It is celebrated annually with torchlight processions and it is non-mandatory for students to go to school.

The date of November 1 was set by the government of Alexander Stamboliiski in 1922. The proposal was submitted by the Minister of National Education Stoyan Omarchevski on the initiative of Stanimir Stanimirov, Alexander Radoslavov, Dimitar Lazov, Prof. Benyo Tsonev, Ivan Vazov, Prof. Lubomir Miletich, Dr. Mikhail Arnaudov, Dr. Phil. Manolov, Hristo Tsankov - Derizhan, Prof. Ivan Georgov, Stilian Chilingirov, Adriana Budevska and Elena Snezhina. (When the Gregorian calendar was established as the state calendar in 1916, October 19 - the day on which St. John of Rila the Wonderworker is celebrated, became November 1.)

On July 28, 1922, the Ministry of National Education issued a district № 17743, according to which November 1 was designated as "a holiday of the Bulgarian awakeners, a day to pay tribute to the memory of the great Bulgarians, distant and near builders of modern Bulgaria" On October 31, 1922, a decree of the Council of Ministers was issued declaring the holiday.

In 1945, the celebration of the holiday was abolished by the communist regime. In many villages in Bulgaria the day was celebrated unofficially.

The celebration resumed in 1992 with an amendment to the Labor Code. The initiative is of Professor Petar Konstantinov - Chairman of the National Association "Mother Bulgaria". Since 2002, a ritual has...