The Orthodox Church celebrates the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The holiday celebrates the miraculous finding of the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. It is one of the 12 major Christian holidays of the year.
When the cross was discovered, it revived a dead boy, and since then Christians believe that if they seek God's mercy on this day, they will be cured of any disease. Folk custom connects the day with the beginning of autumn when the grape harvest begins. In the Rhodopes, thousands of believers gather with a prayer for healing in the area "Krastova gora" (Forest of the Cross) near Asenovgrad the night before the holiday.
For Bulgarians, Krastovden is also connected with the beginning of the last stage of the Ilinden - Preobrazhenie Uprising, when in 1903 the rebellion against the Ottoman rule covered the region of Pirin Macedonia and Serres.
In Northeastern Bulgaria the river Rusenski Lom and its tributaries – Cherni, Beli and Malki Lom – have carved out a rugged rocky landscape with hidden caves and hushed valleys where the only sound is that of the birdsong. People have settled in..
His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph, head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the USA, Canada, and Australia, has blessed the newly elected Parish Council of the Holy Trinity Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Madison, Illinois. The new council was elected..
The revival of Bulgarian statehood after five centuries of Ottoman rule is connected with the April Uprising of 1876 and the Internal Revolutionary Organization previously created by Vasil Levski. After the Treaty of Berlin of 1878, the Bulgarians..
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