St. Todor's day - the celebration of the flying horses

Georgi Georgiev

On the 15th of March Bulgaria celebrates the day of St. Todor. This holiday is a mixture between the Christianity and the pagan rituals which is typical for the Bulgarian traditions. St. Teodor (Todor) is represented as rider on a white horse so he was well accepted as a horse patron in Bulgaria after the Conversion in 864. The horses are very reputable in Bulgaria. Proto-Bulgarians were nomads and they were known horse people.




The graceful animal was their war machine, their transport and first of all, their best friend. That's why the day of St. Todor is still very important in the Bulgarian customs and religious calendar. The holiday is also famous as Tudoritsa or the Horse's Easter day. It is marked on the first Saturday of the Easter day fasting. Everything on this day is connected with the horses and the most attractive part of the festival is the horse races, known as "kushii".

St. Todor's day is celebrated all over Bulgaria. One of the festal spots was the village of Kremikovtsi near Sofia city. The show was organized by "Ezda" (Ride) magazine. It started about 10 o'clock with a heady horse race. Afterwards the terrain was prepared for the horse obstacle-race. There were tree rounds of the competition and the horses and their riders had to overcome tree levels of the obstacles height.

While the animals and people were taking a rest between the different sets, members of the surviving school Baga-Tur performed several very attractive spectacles related to the Bulgarian history through the centuries. "Baga-Tur" is a title of the bravest and strongest warriors among the Proto-Bulgarians. Their show started with the re-creation of some Thracian war and sacrificial rituals. Later on they performed the fighting techniques and the riding skills of the Bulgarian warriors. Proto-Bulgarians left in history as supreme riders and fighters, and the representatives of Baga-Tur proved that with their exquisite ride.

Another perfect rider, Aleksandar Penev, showed how the harmony between the horse and man could be achieved. Aleksadar Penev came back from USA several years ago. He has taught everything from the American cowboys and now he gives this mastery in Bulgaria. He was riding his horse without any rein, only with a tiny rope around the neck of the horse and he made a lasso throwing demonstration.

And while the audience admired the exquisite and semantic performance of Baga-Tur, the precise ride of Aleksadar Penev and the graceful leaps of the competitive horses, a great surprise came from the air. Small red biplaner - Pitts, appeared from nowhere making some incredible and extremely dangerous figures in the sky.

The celebration of St. Todor's day went on with another horse race (kushiya), and a competition between heavy-freight horses, pulling heavy timbers. The merriment and the good mood were assured by liters of beer and great number of meat balls, grilled meat and many other delicious dishes and I'm sure that St. Todor was satisfied with the way by which people hounored his name.