📅 ON THIS DAY IN BULGARIA, Wednesday 24 June
Forget the database footnote that wants to make today about a warship in the Black Sea. The 24th of June has a much older and warmer claim on the Bulgarian calendar. It is Enyovden, the midsummer holiday, and it is the name day for so many people that you almost certainly know at least one of them.
Enyovden, the herb-gatherer's day
Enyovden (Еньовден) falls on 24 June, the Orthodox feast of the birth of St John the Baptist. It is Bulgaria's midsummer: the sun is at its highest, the days are about to start their slow shortening, and by old belief this is the turning point of the year. The folklore is lovely and very specific. Tradition holds that herbs reach their peak power on this single morning, so they should be picked at dawn, before the sun is fully up, to carry the year's healing in them. The old saying even gives a count, seventy-seven and a half herbs, one for every ailment and a half-herb for the unknown disease. Add the customs of watching the sunrise and walking through the morning dew for health, and you have a thoroughly pre-Christian midsummer wearing a saint's-day coat, which is true of a great deal of the Bulgarian folk calendar.
You do not need to believe a word of it to enjoy it. But if you see someone at the village pazar this week with bunches of wild herbs drying, this is the season behind it.
A name day for half your address book
This is where Enyovden really earns its place. Today is the name day for an unusually large cluster of names, all spun off the holiday and the saint: Enyo, Encho, Yani, Yanaki, Yanislav, the whole Yana family (Yanka, Yanina, Yanitsa, Yana herself), and the Deyan and Diyan group (Deyan, Deyana, Diyan, Diyana, and the anglicised Dean).
If any of that is your name, or your partner's, today is yours. And if it belongs to a Bulgarian friend, here is the etiquette worth knowing as a British expat: on a name day you do not wait for an invitation. The celebrant is the host, so you can drop round, you bring something small, flowers or something sweet, and you say "Chestit imen den" (happy name day). Turning up is the compliment.
Obzor's town day
It is also a town day. Obzor (Обзор), a small Black Sea resort up the coast in Nesebar municipality, holds its municipal celebration on Enyovden, tying the town's day to the midsummer feast. If you happen to be on that stretch of coast, it is worth knowing why the town is in a good mood.
It is, in the end, the kind of day that rewards knowing one Yana and turning up with flowers.