Most Brits, if they know one thing about Mary Magdalene, know the wrong thing. The reformed-prostitute image, the one the Da Vinci Code ran with, is a Western medieval invention that the Catholic Church itself eventually walked back. The Orthodox Church that shaped Bulgaria never bought it in the first place. Here she is honoured as a myrrh-bearer and Equal-to-the-Apostles, the first person to find the empty tomb. And today, 22 July, is her feast, which makes it the name day for every Magdalena, Magda and Meglena you know.
What happened on this day
22 July is Magdalenovden, the feast of Mary Magdalene. In the Gospels she is the follower who stayed at the cross when most of the men had fled, and the first witness to the Resurrection, which is why the Orthodox tradition gives her the title Equal-to-the-Apostles rather than the penitent-sinner role Western art saddled her with. Her name simply means "of Magdala", a fishing town on the Sea of Galilee.
It is a well-loved name in Bulgaria, and it comes in more forms than you might expect. Magdalena and Magda are the obvious ones, but Meglena belongs to the same family: it is the Bulgarian variant that grew out of the same biblical root, softened over centuries into something that sounds entirely home-grown. If you have a Meglena in your life, today is quietly her day too.
Today's name days
Get the greeting ready: честит имен ден (chess-TEET ee-MEN den), happy name day.
Magdalena (mag-da-LEH-na) is the headline name, and the cultural anchor almost picks itself: Magdalena Maleeva, the youngest of the three Maleeva sisters who turned a single Sofia household into a tennis dynasty. She reached world number four, won ten singles titles, and together she, Katerina and Manuela racked up forty WTA titles between them, each of them a genuine top-six player. For a country the size of Bulgaria, that is not a fluke; it is a phenomenon.
Meglena (meg-LEH-na) has its own heavyweight. Meglena Kuneva became Bulgaria's very first European Commissioner when the country joined the EU in 2007, and, fittingly for a name day that lands on a saint, she took the consumer-protection portfolio, spending her Brussels years making sure the rest of us could read the small print. If you have ever felt mildly protected buying something online in the EU, tip your hat.
The other forms celebrating today are Magdalina, and the male name Miglen. The full list and its variants live in our Bulgarian name-days guide.
Here is the part that catches British newcomers out. A Bulgarian name day is not a private birthday you wait to be told about. On a well-loved name like this, the celebrant keeps open house: friends, colleagues and neighbours simply drop in. The one unbreakable rule is never turn up empty-handed. Cake, banitsa, chocolates or a bottle of wine all do the job; flowers are welcome for the women, but buy them in odd numbers, because even bunches are for funerals.
Why this matters for British expats
The practical use is simple: if a colleague or neighbour is a Magdalena or a Meglena, a two-word greeting and a small gift today will earn you more goodwill than a month of polite nods. But the deeper value is the correction the day quietly offers. Bulgaria's Orthodox calendar carries a version of Mary Magdalene that is older and more dignified than the one Western pop culture handed you, and noticing that is a small lesson in reading the country on its own terms rather than through a British lens.
The Shumen tie-in is honest rather than forced: this is a day about a name, not a local landmark, and there is no Magdalene shrine on the plateau. But any Magdalena in the city marking the day will likely light a candle at the Holy Ascension or the Holy Three Saints church, the two working Orthodox churches at the heart of Shumen, and if you want the greeting to land right, our phrasebook has the pronunciation.
Sources and further reading
The saint's-day detail and the Orthodox framing here draw on the Bulgarian Wikipedia entry on Mary Magdalene and the standard Bulgarian name-days calendar, with the biographical notes on Magdalena Maleeva and Meglena Kuneva resting on their well-documented public records.