Whose name day is it on 15 July?

It is the feast of St Vladimir, so everyone called Vladimir, Vladimira, Vlado, Vladko, Vladislav, Vladislava or Gospodin celebrates today. The name comes from the Slavic for ruler and peace, and the saint is Vladimir the Great, who Christianised Kievan Rus in 988.

What should I bring to a Vladimir's name-day gathering?

Never arrive empty-handed. A cake, a box of chocolates, a bottle of wine, or flowers in an odd number are all correct, and even-numbered bunches are reserved for funerals so count carefully. Say chestit imen den, happy name day, on the doorstep. A name day is an open house, so you can drop in without a formal invitation.

What is Bankya famous for?

Bankya is a spa city about 17 kilometres west of Sofia, known for its mineral springs and, nationwide, for the bottled Bankya mineral water that carries its name. It became part of Sofia in 1979, and it is also the birthplace of Boyko Borisov, the founder of the GERB party and a long-serving former prime minister.

Who is Georgi Balabanov?

He is a Bulgarian actor turned film director, born in Sofia on 15 July 1951. He trained at the national theatre and film academy, VITIZ (now NATFIZ), and directed films across four decades, including Solo for English Horn (1983) and Games Without Rules (2001).

Is 15 July a public holiday in Bulgaria?

No. A name day and a local town day are not public holidays, so it is a normal working day. In 2026, 15 July falls on a Wednesday, with banks, offices, schools and shops all keeping their usual hours.

On This Day in Bulgaria: St Vladimir's Name Day and the Town Behind the Water (15 July), Shumen.UK

Some days the Bulgarian calendar barely stirs. Today is not one of them: a film director's birthday, a spa town throwing a party, and one of the largest clusters of name days in the summer, all landing at once.

What happened on this day

The birthday belongs to Georgi Balabanov, born in Sofia on 15 July 1951, an actor turned film director who trained at the national theatre and film academy, VITIZ (now NATFIZ), in 1974. If you have not heard of him, you are in good company outside Bulgarian film circles, but his name runs across four decades of pictures, from Pomen in 1979 and Solo for English Horn in 1983 through to Games Without Rules in 2001. NATFIZ, incidentally, is the school nearly every Bulgarian screen actor of the last century passed through, roughly the country's RADA, which makes it a more interesting landmark than any single film on the list.

Today's name days

This is a big one, because today is the feast of St Vladimir, and half the Vladimirs in Bulgaria are celebrating. The name is pure Slavic, vladi (to rule) and mir (peace or world), so 'ruler of the world', and the saint is Vladimir the Great, the prince who pulled Kievan Rus into Christianity in 988. If you want a Bulgarian face to attach to the name, picture Vladimir Dimitrov-Maistora, the painter whose luminous portraits of village women hang in galleries across the country.

The same day covers Vladislav and Vladislava, a related old royal name once carried by the medieval Bulgarian tsar Ivan Vladislav, so anyone called that is in grand historical company too. Between them the day gathers a whole cluster: Vladimir and Vladimira, the short forms Vlado and Vladko, Vladislav and Vladislava, and the unusual Gospodin, which literally means 'sir' or 'lord'. If your name, or your neighbour's, is anywhere in that list, our Bulgarian name-days guide has the full picture.

And the rule Brits always need reminding of: a Bulgarian name day is an open house, not a private party you wait to be asked to. People simply drop in on whoever is celebrating, and you never turn up empty-handed. A cake, a bottle, chocolates, or flowers in an odd number (even numbers are for funerals) are all correct. Say chestit imen den, happy name day, and you have got it right.

Towns celebrating today

One town is properly celebrating: Bankya, a small spa city of around 10,000 people at the foot of Lyulin mountain, seventeen kilometres west of Sofia and, since 1979, technically part of it. Its town day is the feast of the martyrs Cyricus and Julitta, the saints its 1932 church is named for. But the thing you already know about Bankya is probably in your fridge: Bankya is the mineral water, one of the bottled brands you see on every shop shelf and cafe table in the country, drawn from the same springs that made the town a spa resort more than a century ago. Two footnotes for good measure: the national writer Ivan Vazov has an oak named after him here, and the town is the birthplace of Boyko Borisov, the GERB leader who has dominated Bulgarian politics for the best part of two decades.

Why this matters for British expats

Three small windows into the country in a single day. Balabanov and NATFIZ are a reminder that Bulgaria has a serious film tradition most of us never bump into. The Vladimir name day is live etiquette you might well need before the week is out. And Bankya is the story behind a bottle you have almost certainly bought without a second thought, the mineral water that is more or less the national tap. None of this is happening in Shumen today, our own city day falls elsewhere in the calendar, but that is rather the point of following the Bulgarian year: it hands you a small, specific reason to understand the place a little better every single day. If you know a Vladimir, start there.

Sources and further reading

The film details draw on the Bulgarian Wikipedia biography of Георги Балабанов; Bankya's springs, its church and its famous son are set out on the town's English Wikipedia entry. The name-day cluster follows the standard Bulgarian Orthodox calendar and the feast of St Vladimir.