July

The Latin name Julius designates the month of Julius Caesar
(101–44 BC). This month and the next one are devoted to historical
personalities. Many emperors, like Nero for example,
aspired for such honor but in vain.
The old Bulgarians call the month “the hot one”.

 

 

 

 

1 July ST. VRACH


The day of the Christian saints Kozma and
Damyan is considered a “grand” holiday and
no one works on it so that he does not get
sick. On this day people pay homage to popular
healers – wise-women, sorceresses and spinning-wheel men. Sacrificial animals are slaughtered for health and sick people visit curative springs and leave pieces of their clothes as signs on the nearby "trick-out" for the sickness to remain there forever. People tell the story that very long ago the gods walked among men and a big river flowed in our lands. It divided the field from the mountain and protected people from the evil forces beyond the mountain. On the hill, after the
turn of the river, in a small house under a very old tree there lived a white-bearded old man and his daughter. He could speak with the birds and the animals, knew the secrets of all
herbs and could heal people. That is why he was loved and respected like a god. Every day somebody would step over his threshold

and bring presents, fruit and food. All people in these parts were healthy, merry, and they lived happily for many years. But the master
of the underground kingdom, who kept the souls of the dead under
lock and key, got angry that the old woman Death sent by him to the
earth, very often returned empty-handed. The old man and his daughter healed the people and they didn’t die so often. The king sent messengers who brought handsome presents to the old man so that he would stop healing people. “Or you will be in real trouble!”, the messengers
warned him. But the old man didn’t obey, he returned the lavish royal presents and declared firmly that he had vowed to help people.
The master of the underground kingdom was furious and sent an evil sorceress to punish the good healer. Strong winds started to blow,
big fires flared up. An awful whirlwind blew by the river and destroyed
the house on the hill. In the raging flames the old healer embraced his daughter to protect her from the evil forces. But the sorceress turned
him into a snake, and his daughter into a wonderful cup. Father and daughter, in an embrace, were turned into stone forever.
They stand like this to this very day, turned by God into a symbol of the eternal power of medicine.

7 July. Nameday of Nedyalko, Nedyalka. According to legends the seventh day, Sunday
(nedelya),is under the sign of the Sun, which is “the eye of God”, blessing and giving health
and fertility to people.

8 July PROKOPI PCHELAR
(Procopius the Beekeeper)

On this day every woman makes a “grass bread” (a ritual bread
with the image of a bee-hive). It is known that the hive holds the
bee family and for that reason this bread is given only to relatives
to be healthy and to live long. And something more – you don’t
throw water among the bee-hives, especially “night water”.
The story goes that once upon a time a woman, coming back
from the fields, prepared the dough and kneaded it. She put it
in the pan and threw it into the oven. While

preparing the dinner it became dark. So she
threw out the water from the trough right
into the yard on the grass. They went to
sleep and on the morning her hands
became red, swollen and covered with
white blisters. They took her to a medicine
man and he said that she must have
thrown out “night water” on the fairies
and her hands will dry up.
It is known since then that used water
is never thrown out during the night. You
must put three coals in it and keep it at
home until morning.

15 July. Nameday of Vladimir, Vladimira. The name originates from the ancient
‘great ruler’.

16 July. A holiday of those having the name of Yulian, Yulia (after the name of the
month of Emperor Guy Julius Caesar).

17 July. Nameday of Marin, Marina. (Meaning ‘firm, constant’).

15–17 July GORESHTNITZI
(Dog Days)

Rada’s mother said to Rada: Dear Rada, dear daughter,
Here have come the evil days The evil days – dog days…
(folk song) In the week after summer St. Athanasius
the Harvester there come the three black days, called God Days. The first one – 15 July, is Churuta, the second one – 16 July, is Purliga, and the third – 17 July, is Marina the Fiery. People believe that if during the Dog Days you don’t observe certain restrictions: not to work in the field, in the garden or at
home, fire will fall from the skies and will burn the fields and the houses. The most terrible are Churuta and Marina the Fiery.
On Churuta they put out the fire in every

house and only on the third day, on Marina the Fiery at the village square two twins lit it
up again by rubbing lime-tree sticks with a spindle from hazel bush. They called it “new
fire”, “live” fire from which they lit all ovens and which healed all illnesses in the world.
Bulgarians believe that St. Marina the Fiery keeps under lock all living creatures. To
those who pay her homage she sends small pests to do no harm to man. The saint was
also a healer. On her day in the Pirin region the sick bathe in hot thermal springs or with
warm herbal baths. Then the sick person tied a sign on a fruit tree by the spring: a thread
or a piece of cloth from his clothes so as to “tie” the illness. The day is also a holiday for
craftsmen who work with fire: blacksmiths, ironmongers, tinsmiths, coppersmiths and masters of
pottery. The women of the house prepare breads, cover them with honey and give
them out to the neighbors so that the men’s work is easy and for luck.
These holidays have been neglected but memories have remained of them as old
cults connected with worshipping the sun and the fire as its earthly equivalent.

20 July ILINDEN (St. Elija’s Day)

The holiday is connected with the Slavic
god of thunder and lightning – Perun.
Folk tradition requires that to honor
Elija the Thunderer we must kill the oldest
rooster. In this way roosters in the
house become younger. Same
thing happens with the “roosters”
in the village – on this day is the inauguration of new marriageable lads. This takes place in the village square before young and old. When a lad decides that he is old enough to keep house
and raise a family, at the horo dance in the
evening the oldest bachelor in the village takes
from the lad’s mother or
female relative a new red sash
and ritually girds it on the
lad. The bachelor holds
one end of the sash,
the lad takes the other end, puts it under his
breast and turns round until the sash is girded on. Meanwhile the old bachelor blesses:
“E-hey! As this sash is winding round, so the lasses wind round you!” “Amen!” say the
others and the "twisted" horo dance starts. The old bachelor introduces the lad into the
horo and he acquires the status of a bachelor who can flirt with the lasses without being
funny in the eyes of the other young men. Then people go to the temple and eat
together at table. Young women don’t wash themselves on that day because the Dragon will fall in love
with the one that has washed herself. In addition to those bearing the name of
the saint (Iliya, Iliana, Iliyan, Ilko, Ilka), this is the day of curriers, furriers, makers of packsaddles
and tiles.

 

27 July PANTELEEVDEN
(St. Pantheleimon’s Day)


People call Saint Pantheleimon “Panteley
the Traveler” or Water Panteley. Pantheleimon
means ‘all merciful’ in Greek.
People pay homage to him to prevent
heavy rains and floods. This is also the day of
fortune-tellers, witches and healers, for Saint
Pantheleimon was a great healer of all illnesses.
Bulgarians in the villages near the
Sea of Azov believe that on St.
Pantheleimon’s Day swallows and storks get
together to start on their way to their winter
homes or as the old people say: “The storks
are going for snow”.

31 July BOGORODICHNI ZAGOVEZNI
(Virgin Mary’s Shrove tide)

They prepare a table with a “Shrovetide
bread” which is broken and never cut. Meals
are with meat. In some villages the following
three days are of fast – people don’t eat to
purify themselves in body and soul.

 

 

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