Day of the National Awakeners: Why Bulgaria Celebrates 1 November

Every year on 1 November, Bulgaria celebrates the Day of the National Awakeners (Ден на народните будители). It honours the writers, teachers, scholars and freedom fighters who kept the Bulgarian language, faith and identity alive through centuries of foreign rule. They woke a nation up.

Few countries set aside a day for the people who taught them to read, think and believe in themselves. Bulgaria does, and that alone says a lot about the place.

What does “awakener” mean?

A buditel is someone who awakens others. The word covers monks who copied and wrote history books by candlelight, teachers who opened the first Bulgarian schools, and poets and revolutionaries who gave people a reason to stand up. There is no official list. Anyone who has helped Bulgaria grow in mind and spirit can be called an awakener, then or now.

Awakeners every Bulgarian knows

• Paisius of Hilendar: a monk on Mount Athos who wrote Slav-Bulgarian History in 1762, reminding Bulgarians that they had a proud past. His book is seen as the spark of the Bulgarian National Revival.
• Sophronius of Vratsa: Paisius’s first follower. He copied and spread the History and became one of the most important enlighteners of his time.
• Petar Beron: author of the famous Fish Primer (1824), the textbook that modernised how Bulgarian children learned to read.
• Vasil Aprilov and Neofit Rilski: pioneers of modern secular Bulgarian education, linked to the school opened in Gabrovo in 1835.
• Georgi Rakovski, Lyuben Karavelov and Hristo Botev: writers, publishers and revolutionaries who used the printed word to fight for freedom.
• Vasil Levski: the “Apostle of Freedom”, who built a network of revolutionary committees across Bulgaria.
• Ivan Vazov: the “Patriarch of Bulgarian literature”, whose novel Under the Yoke is still read in every Bulgarian school.

A short history of the holiday

• 1909: the day is first marked informally in Plovdiv.
• 1922: Education Minister Stoyan Omarchevski proposes 1 November as a national day for the awakeners, and the government adopts it.
• 1923: a decree of Tsar Boris III makes it an official day of remembrance for distinguished Bulgarians.
• 1945: the communist regime bans the holiday. In many villages people keep marking it quietly anyway.
• 1992: Parliament restores it through an amendment to the Labour Code and makes it a day off for all schools and universities.

Why 1 November? Under the old (Julian) calendar, this was the feast day of St. Ivan of Rila, Bulgaria’s patron saint and founder of the Rila Monastery, itself a centre of learning for centuries.

How Bulgaria celebrates today

• Schools and universities are closed, and students often take part in concerts and readings.
• Flowers are laid at monuments to the awakeners in towns and villages across the country.
• Many towns hold torchlight processions in the evening, a symbol of light conquering darkness.
• The President awards honours to outstanding scientists, teachers and cultural figures.

The awakeners of today

The holiday is not only about the past. Bulgarians also use the day to thank today’s awakeners: the teachers, librarians, researchers, artists and volunteers who keep Bulgarian culture alive at home and in communities around the world. If someone opened your eyes to something, 1 November is a good day to tell them.

Честит Ден на народните будители! Happy National Awakeners Day!

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