Strandzha Commune

Every year on 19 August, in the locality of Petrova Niva homage is paid to the victims in the 1903 Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising of Bulgarians in Macedonia and Thrace against the Ottoman Empire, reported bTV. 

The events in the summer of 1903 culminated at the feasts of St. Elijah (Ilinden) and Transfiguration of Christ (Preobrazhenie).

Bulgaria marks on July 20 Ilinden - the Day of St. Elijah or Iliya and the Name Day of Iliya, Iliyan and Iliyana.

Elijah or Iliya was a prophet in Israel in the 9th century BC. According to the Books of Kings, Elijah raised the dead, brought fire down from the sky, and ascended into heaven in a chariot.