The population of Bulgaria is 8,191,000 (December 1999). During the next years further aging of population and problems with the reproduction of the labor force are expected . While in 1990 the average age of the people was 37.5 years, in 1999 it is 39.2 years. The active population is 4.753 million. The unemployement currently is quite high--about 18% -- due to substantial structural reforms of Bulgarian economy.

Approximately 86% of the people living in Bulgaria are ethnic Bulgarians. About 9% of the population are Turks and 4% Gypsies. A solid majority (85%) of people belong to the Bulgarian Christian Orthodox Church. Bulgaria is largely an urban country - at least 67% of the people live in urban communities such as Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna and other cities and towns. Bulgaria has a high literacy rate of 98% - education is free and compulsory for children ages 7 through 16. Read more about Bulgaria here.

Education

Bulgaria’s education system is a strong national asset. Foreign companies investing in Bulgaria over the past decade have been impressed with the level of technical and general education found in the labor force. The country’s elite, foreign language schools ensure a large supply of well-educated managers and linguists for foreign companies. Bulgaria’s quality institutions of higher learning have attracted students from neighboring countries.

Religion and Holidays

The conversion of Bulgarians to Christianity took place around 864 A.D. and the foundations of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church were laid down at the Constantinople Council in 870 A.D.

The National Holiday of Bulgaria is March 3, the Day of Liberation of Ottoman Rule. On March 3, 1878, the peace treaty of San Stefano between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was signed which restored the Bulgarian state.

Other official holidays include:

• New Year’s Day

• Resurrection of Christ (Easter) on April 15, 2001

• Labor Day on May 1

• Saint George Day on May 6

• The Day of the Founders of the Slavonic Alphabet St. Cyril and St. Methodius - Day of the Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture, on May 24

• Unification Day on September 6

• Independence Day on September 22

• Christmas on December 25

Festivals and Folklore

Many rural communities continue to celebrate ritual festivals which mark the passage of time and the seasons. February 14, the wine growers celebrate the traditional pruning of the grapes. Kukerov den is a masked procession to commemorate the beginning of the agricultural year on the first Sunday before Lent. The Spring season includes various fertility rites including the Lazaruvane young maiden’s song and dance eight days before Easter. A rose festival also occurs in Kazanlak every June.

Click here to listen to "To Nurture a Swallow" by Lot Lorien folklore/jazz group - Varna (wait a little to start downloading).

Balkan folklore is an integral part of rural village life. Traditions are carried orally from generation to generation. Life experiences are translated into verse, poetic songs, melodies, fairy tales, symbolic rituals, music, dance, costumes, and jewelry. The folk song uniquely and creatively combines poetry, music and dance in one tradition. Koprivshtitsa Folklore Festival is one of the most popular local events and is held every five years.

Pittsburgh-produced CD-ROM raises the curtain on great Bulgarian opera tradition

A musical treasure

By Andrew Druckenbrod, Post-Gazette Classical Music Critic

It's a modestly sized European country touching an important sea, where the joy of singing infuses everyone and everything. Music holds great respect in its villages and cosmopolitan cities. Its professional singers have been among the world's most celebrated over the last century.

It's not Italy, but Bulgaria.

Language and Alphabet

The Bulgarian language belongs to the South Slavic branch of the Slavic languages and uses the Cyrillic alphabet:

The history of the language covers three periods: old (9th century - 11th century), middle (12th century - 14th century), and modern (15th century through present day). The modern literary language was formed during the Bulgarian National Revival (18th - 19th centuries).

The Bulgarian language is unique among the Slavic languages for several reasons. The definite article is added as a suffix, coming after the noun. It has lost the case system from Common Slavic and prepositions have replaced cases to show the relationships between parts of a sentence. The language has 9 tenses, but the infinitive verb form no longer exists.

The Cyrillic alphabet was developed by St. St. Cyril and Methodius and they have created the alphabet on which the modern languages of Russia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and of the former Soviet republics are based.

Cyril and Methodius were two brothers, who lived during the 9th century (over a thousand years ago!), when Bulgaria was being shaped as a country. The people spoke in Bulgarian but didn't have an alphabet and couldn't write.

Before the 9th century Bulgaria and other parts of the area around the Mediterranean and Black Sea, were parts of the Roman Empire. While the Romans were losing power (3rd to 4th Century), tribes from Asia started an invasion of Europe. One of these tribes, called the Bulgars, reached this area and gradually mixed with the local population. The Bulgar king united all the different tribes into the first Bulgarian empire in 681.

Cyril and Methodius lived at that time. They were Christian monks of the Orthodox Church, who taught their students a new alphabet that they could use to read and write in Bulgarian. In 863 they created the alphabet by mixing Latin and Greek letters, which became the basis of the Bulgarian language.

The "Cyrillic alphabet," as it is now called, became very popular in the 9th through 11th centuries, when it helped spread Christianity to other parts of Eastern Europe. "Old Church Slavonic", another name for the early alphabet, is an important part of the literature of the Orthodox Church.

The Bulgarians are very proud of the two brothers, who have created the base of the modern Bulgarian language. One of the biggest Bulgarian holidays celebrates the honor of Cyril and Methodius. May 24th is also known as "Day of Bulgarian Culture" and is a time for concerts and celebrations.

Read more about Bulgarian culture at: Culture Forum Magazine

Architecture

Bulgarians homes are often decorated with wood-carved symbols, a tradition inherited from the Slavs. Typical decorations include circles, spirals, stars and snakelike ornaments. During the Bulgarian National Revival in the 18th and 19th centuries, affluent Bulgarians traveled beyond the Ottoman Empire to Western Europe and Russia bringing back with them new materials and new styles of architecture.

Fine Arts

A considerable amount of the art developed during the Middle Ages in Bulgaria consisted of icons. Icon painting most likely originated with the adoption of Christianity in 865 A.D. from the Byzantine church. In the 9th and 10th centuries, churches and monasteries were rapidly built in the Pliska and Preslav. All places of worship were decorated with icons and murals. Preslav, in particular, emerged as an important center of art where painted glazed ceramics were mass-produced. Some of the most significant Bulgarian icons were painted during the Second Kingdom in the 13th-14th centuries. It was during this period that the double-faced icon appeared. After the Ottoman invasion in the late 14th century, only icon painting continued to develop. However, it was not until the 16th century, that aesthetic appearance of the icon radically changed.

Theater

Theater performances became popularized in Bulgaria during the National Revival in the second half of the 19th century. The first professional theater company was formed in Plovdiv in 1883. The National Theater was founded in 1904 in Sofia and was the center for development of national dramatic culture in the beginning of the 20th century. In the last three decades, puppet theater has received international acclaim.

For your records: INTERNATIONAL BALLET COMPETITION - VARNA and The Sofia Jazz Festival