TODOROVDEN (St. Theodore's Day)
TODOROVDEN (St. Theodore's Day)
St. Theodore's Day is celebrated six days after Shrovetide.
It is also known as "Horses' Easter" because of the horse races (kushii) commonly held on that day.
According to folk tradition, the newly married women would make a ritual Theodore's round loaf of bread decorated with a dough-modelled image of a horse's head.
Pieces of this bread used to be given out to neighbours or strangers by the women who would accompany the ritual with bouncing and neighing like mares.
The ancient roots of this folk festival lie in Thracian mythology.
The horse is a sun symbol, while the horseman is known in the Bulgarian lands through the cult of the Thracian
