Marinovden is the feast of St Marina on 17 July. On the Bulgarian coast she is honoured as the patron of seafarers and fishermen, and the day is often marked with blessings of the fishing boats. It is also the name day for everyone called Marina, Marin and their variants.

Whose name day is 17 July?

It is the name day for Marina, Marin, Marinka, Marinela, Mariyana and Margarita. The name Marina comes from the Latin for of the sea, which is why St Marina is linked to seafarers. Margarita shares the day because St Marina of Antioch is the same saint the Western church calls St Margaret.

Why does Sozopol celebrate today?

St Marina is the patron saint of Sozopol, so 17 July is the town day of this ancient Black Sea port. It is a fitting match: Sozopol was founded as the Greek colony of Apollonia in the seventh century BC and has been a fishing and seafaring town ever since.

What should I bring to a Marina'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, since even-numbered bunches are for funerals. Say chestit imen den, happy name day, on the doorstep, and a coastal Marina will appreciate a good Marinovden too.

Is 17 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, 17 July falls on a Friday, with banks, offices, schools and shops all keeping their usual hours.

On This Day in Bulgaria: Marinovden, the Sea Saint's Day, and Sozopol (17 July), Shumen.UK

The calendar offers two versions of 17 July, and I know which one I am choosing. One is a football match, the 2021 Bulgarian Supercup, Ludogorets against CSKA Sofia in the capital. The other is Marinovden, the day of St Marina, patron of the sea, when fishing boats along the coast get blessed and half the Marinas in the country throw open their doors. We are going with Marina.

What happened on this day

Marinovden falls on 17 July, the feast of St Marina, and on the Bulgarian coast it is one of the loveliest days in the calendar. Marina comes from the Latin marinus, quite literally 'of the sea', and St Marina is taken here as the protector of seafarers and fishermen. In the old coastal towns the day is marked with blessings of the boats: a priest, a censer, a great deal of holy water, and a working fishing fleet lined up to be sent out safe for another season. (Inland, the same saint is invoked against fire, which tells you how versatile a good patron saint has to be.)

There is a small puzzle built into the day, too. One of the names celebrating today is Margarita, which looks nothing like Marina, until you learn that St Marina of Antioch is the very same third-century martyr the Western church calls St Margaret. So a Bulgarian Marina and an English Margaret are, in the oldest sense, named for the same person.

Today's name days

It is a big name day. Marina, and its male form Marin, lead a whole cluster celebrating today. If you want a Bulgarian face to attach to the name, reach for Marin Drinov, the nineteenth-century historian who helped found the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and, in a nice footnote, is the man credited with proposing Sofia as the national capital.

The rest of the cluster gathers up Marinka, Marinela, Mariyana and, as we have seen, Margarita. If your name, or a neighbour's, is anywhere in that list, our Bulgarian name-days guide has the full spread. And the standing rule for any Bulgarian name day holds: it is an open house, people drop in without waiting for an invitation, and nobody arrives empty-handed. A cake, a bottle, or flowers in an odd number all work. Say chestit imen den, happy name day, and if the Marina in question lives on the coast, wish her a good Marinovden.

Towns celebrating today

One town wears the day especially well: Sozopol, the ancient little port on the southern Black Sea coast, 35 kilometres south of Burgas, whose town day this is. It is one of the oldest settlements on the whole coast, founded by Greek colonists in the seventh century BC as Apollonia, and for a British visitor it is the postcard version of old Bulgaria: a maze of wooden National Revival houses on a stone peninsula, fishing boats bobbing below, and every September the Apollonia arts festival, running since 1984. For a fishing town to take St Marina, protector of seafarers, as its patron could hardly be more fitting. If you have ever wandered Sozopol's old town on a summer evening, the coast has been quietly marking this exact day for centuries.

Why this matters for British expats

Most of us arrive on this coast for the beaches and stay for something harder to name, and Marinovden is a small key to it. It is a working day, not a public holiday, but on the coast it is genuinely observed: if you are near a harbour in Sozopol, Nesebar or the fishing quarters of Burgas today, you may catch a boat blessing, which is worth stopping for. It is also live etiquette. If you know a Marina, a Marin or a Margarita, today is the day to mark it, and turning up with a cake beats a text message. There is no Marinovden procession in landlocked Shumen, whose own calendar peaks on other saints' days, but that is the quiet pleasure of following the Bulgarian year: it keeps handing you a reason to understand the country a little better, one saint at a time. Today, that reason smells of sea salt and church incense.

Sources and further reading

Sozopol's story, from ancient Apollonia to its wooden old town and the Apollonia festival, is set out on its English and Bulgarian Wikipedia entries. The Marinovden tradition and the name-day cluster follow the standard Bulgarian Orthodox calendar and the feast of St Marina.