Title: Bulgarian Folk Calendar for Leap Year 1868

Description

Bulgarian Folk Calendar for Leap Year 1868 is one of a number of popular folk calendars produced by En’o Kŭrpachev (1833–1916), a publisher in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), during the National Revival era in Bulgaria. The first published Bulgarian calendar appeared in 1818. Over 100 of them were published during the National Revival era alone. The wave of popularity for Bulgarian calendars began in the 1840s and continued long past the end of the Revival period. Calendars were a popular genre of reading material in the 19th century, and included a variety of content ranging from information on holidays and special dates to anecdotes, poems, translations, and lives of the saints. This 1868 calendar has a list of dates and historical events related to Bulgaria, predictions for the new year, an Orthodox church calendar, a directory of fairs to be held that year, and current information about telegraph and postal services and shipping lines. The most interesting piece in the calendar is a poem about the now debunked legend of Ilarion of Tŭrnovo (a Greek) supposedly burning Slavic books in the library of the Patriarch of Tŭrnovo. This tale originated during the National Revival era and was used to vilify the Greek clergy.

Last updated: November 29, 2012