📅 ON THIS DAY IN BULGARIA, Sunday 24 May
What 24 May celebrates
24 May is Bulgaria's Day of Bulgarian Education and Culture and of Slavonic Literature (Ден на българската просвета и культура и на славянската писменост), the single most important cultural holiday on the Bulgarian calendar and one of the few that feels universally loved rather than dutifully observed. It's a full public holiday, schools are shut, and parades of schoolchildren carrying giant cardboard Cyrillic letters march through the centre of every town in the country.
The holiday honours Saints Cyril and Methodius, the two 9th-century Byzantine Greek brothers who created the Glagolitic alphabet around 862-863 CE to translate the Bible and liturgical texts into Old Church Slavonic. The Glagolitic script was later adapted by their students into the Cyrillic alphabet, which is what modern Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian and a dozen other languages use today. Bulgaria considers itself the birthplace and guardian of Cyrillic, and 24 May is the day the country celebrates that legacy with something approaching national reverence.
Cyril (born Constantine) and Methodius were brothers from Thessaloniki who were sent by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III to Great Moravia (modern Czech Republic and Slovakia) to teach Christianity in the local Slavic language. The Latin clergy of the region opposed them bitterly, arguing that only Latin, Greek and Hebrew were fit for sacred texts. Cyril and Methodius pushed back, creating a written language for the Slavs and translating the Gospels. Their students fled to Bulgaria after Methodius's death in 885, where they refined the alphabet under the patronage of Tsar Boris I and later Tsar Simeon the Great. The Preslav Literary School and the Ohrid Literary School became the two great centres of Slavic literacy, and by the 10th century, Bulgaria was producing literature, legal codes and religious texts in a script that made the Slavic-speaking world legible to itself.
The modern holiday was established in 1851 by the Bulgarian National Revival movement, when the country was still under Ottoman rule and written Bulgarian was a quiet act of cultural resistance. After Liberation in 1878, 24 May became an official school holiday. Under communism it was rebranded slightly, adding "Slavonic Literature" to the title to emphasise Soviet-Bulgarian-Russian brotherhood, but the core ritual, schoolchildren parading with the alphabet, stayed intact. Post-1989, the holiday has only grown in popularity. It's one of the few national celebrations that feels genuinely grassroots rather than imposed from above.
What happens today
Every town in Bulgaria holds a parade. Schoolchildren dress in traditional folk costumes or white shirts and march through the town centre carrying giant letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, from А to Я, often painted on cardboard and mounted on poles. Parents, grandparents and the entire local community line the streets to watch. The mayor gives a speech, there's usually a choir performance, and someone reads a poem by Hristo Botev or Ivan Vazov. In Sofia, the parade is enormous and televised. In smaller towns like Shumen, it's more intimate but no less enthusiastic.
The letters themselves have become the visual symbol of the day. Every photograph of 24 May shows children holding up Б, К, М, waving them like flags. It's the only national holiday where the iconography is linguistic rather than political. No military hardware, no heads of state, just the alphabet that made Bulgaria literate.
Banks are shut. Government offices, KAT, NHIF, NRA, municipal desks, all closed. Schools are closed obviously, since they're the ones doing the parading. Supermarkets and most retail stay open, often with reduced Sunday hours. Restaurants and cafés are open and usually busier than normal, since families treat the day as an outing. If you need petrol, ATMs, or groceries, you're fine. If you need to renew your vignette, pay a tax bill, or visit a government desk, you'll have to wait until Monday.
The day is warm and noisy. Every town square has a brass band, children running around with ice cream, grandmothers in headscarves sitting on benches watching the parade for the fiftieth time. It's the kind of public holiday that actually draws the public out rather than leaving them at home.
Today's name days
Two names celebrate today, both drawn directly from the saints the holiday honours:
Кирил (Kiril, or Cyril) celebrates the elder brother, the scholar and linguist who created the alphabet and died in Rome in 869. The name is common across Bulgaria, often shortened to Кирчо (Kircho) or Кико (Kiko) in childhood. Famous bearers include Kiril Petkov, the former prime minister, and Patriarch Kiril, head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
Методи / Методий (Metodi, Metodiy) celebrates the younger brother, the diplomat and bishop who defended the Slavic liturgy against Rome and died in Great Moravia in 885. The name is less common than Kiril but still carried with pride. The feminine variant Кирилка (Kirilka) also celebrates today.
The name-day etiquette on 24 May is slightly unusual because the entire country is already celebrating the saints publicly. If you know a Kiril or a Metodi, you're still expected to say честит имен ден (chesh-TEET ee-MEN den, "happy name day") and bring cake or flowers when you see them, but the national holiday gives the greeting extra weight. It's one of the few name days where the celebrant's patron saint is simultaneously the subject of a public parade.
Towns celebrating today
Eleven Bulgarian towns hold their municipal day on 24 May, tying their local identity directly to the national celebration of education and culture:
Balchik (pop. ~11,000) on the Black Sea coast north of Varna is famous for its white cliffs, the Balchik Palace (summer residence of Romanian Queen Marie), and its botanical garden. The palace and gardens are one of Bulgaria's most-visited coastal landmarks outside the beach resorts.
Blagoevgrad (pop. ~70,000) in the southwest is a university city near the Greek border, home to the American University in Bulgaria and Southwest University. The city has a young, cosmopolitan feel and a reputation for good cafés and nightlife.
Veliki Preslav (pop. ~8,000) in Shumen oblast is one of the most historically loaded towns on the list. It was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire from 893 to 972 under Tsar Simeon the Great, and the Preslav Literary School was the epicentre of early Cyrillic scholarship. The archaeological complex at Veliki Preslav is a UNESCO tentative site, and locals treat 24 May as their town's founding myth made literal.
Devnya (pop. ~8,000) near Varna is an industrial town famous for its chemical plants and the nearby Roman fortress of Marcianopolis. The town also has natural hot springs and a small museum dedicated to the Roman period.
Dolni Chiflik (pop. ~4,000) in Varna oblast is a quieter agricultural town near the Kamchiya River, known for its orchards and vineyards.
Primorsko (pop. ~3,000) on the southern Black Sea coast is a small beach resort south of Burgas, quieter and less developed than Sunny Beach or Golden Sands. It's popular with Bulgarian families and budget travellers.
Sadovo (a village in Hadzhidimovo municipality, Blagoevgrad oblast) celebrates with a събор (sabor, a traditional fair or gathering). The exact population is small, but the sabor tradition means the celebration draws visitors from neighbouring villages.
Sapareva Banya (pop. ~3,000) in Kyustendil oblast is famous for having the hottest natural geyser in Europe (103°C), which erupts in the town centre. The town is also a winter-sports base near the Rila Mountains.
Slivnitsa (pop. ~7,000) west of Sofia is historically significant as the site of the Battle of Slivnitsa (1885), where Bulgaria defeated Serbia shortly after the Unification. The town has a military museum and battlefield monuments.
Topolovgrad (pop. ~10,000) in Haskovo Province near the Turkish border is a quiet agricultural town known for tobacco and grain farming.
Chepelare (pop. ~5,000) in the Rhodope Mountains is a ski resort town and the birthplace of several Olympic biathlon and cross-country skiing champions. It's one of Bulgaria's premier winter-sports centres.
The fact that these eleven towns chose 24 May as their municipal day signals a specific identity claim: we are towns of education, culture, literacy. It's a softer civic branding than choosing a battle date or a revolutionary anniversary, and it ties each place into the national narrative in a way that doesn't require you to have fought in a war.
Why this matters for British expats
The banks are shut because it's a public holiday. Government offices are closed. If you had plans that involved KAT, NHIF, a municipal desk, or any state bureaucracy, reschedule for Monday. Schools are closed, but supermarkets and most retail are open with Sunday hours. The roads into town centres may be blocked or rerouted for parades between roughly 10am and 2pm, check locally if you're driving through a town square mid-morning.
The practical impact is minimal unless you need counter banking or a government service. The cultural impact is everywhere. If you live in Bulgaria and haven't yet watched a 24 May parade, this is the year to do it. The sight of seventy schoolchildren carrying the Cyrillic alphabet through a town square while their grandmothers weep quietly on benches is one of those moments that reframes what you thought you understood about the place. It's not performative patriotism or hollow state ritual. It's a country genuinely proud of the fact that it made half a continent literate, and teaching its children to carry that pride forward one cardboard letter at a time.
If you're the kind of expat who wants to understand what Bulgarians actually care about beyond property prices and EU membership, 24 May is the day that tells you. The holiday isn't about military victories, territorial claims, or political revenge. It's about the alphabet. It's about the fact that two Byzantine brothers gave the Slavs a written language, and Bulgaria turned that gift into a literary and religious tradition that shaped Eastern Europe for a millennium. Knowing that, and being able to say it over coffee when a colleague mentions the parade, earns you a level of cultural fluency that no residency permit can convey.
For British expats with children in Bulgarian schools, today is also a reminder of how differently education is framed here. British school holidays celebrate the Queen's birthday or bank on random Mondays. Bulgarian school holidays celebrate literacy, saints, revolutionary poets, and the idea that a nation is defined by its ability to read and write its own language. Your child will come home today having marched with a letter, sung a folk song, and heard a speech about Cyril and Methodius. That's the cultural contract of the Bulgarian school system, and 24 May is the day it's most visible.
File alongside this in your expat mental map: the Bulgarian name-days guide.
Sources and further reading
The historical framing of Cyril and Methodius and the Preslav and Ohrid Literary Schools draws on the Bulgarian Wikipedia entry on the Day of Bulgarian Education and Culture, the standard Bulgarian cultural calendar, and regional municipal listings. The Shumen.UK calendar guide has the full context on how 24 May fits into the broader rhythm of Bulgarian public holidays.