Bulgaria is an Orthodox Christian country. Easter is one of the most significant holidays in the Bulgarian calendar and starting with Palm Sunday, the holy week leads up to the Great Day.
With Palm Sunday begins the Holy week. The day is also known as Tsvetnitsa or Flower Day and the faithful are given a dispensation and allowed to eat fish. The tradition requires to take willows in the church and to be blessed. Children often make crowns and worn them. After that they placed the wreath at home. Bulgarians keep them until the next year when they are thrown in the rivers for luck and health. The Palm Sunday is called also Tsvetnitsa because people named on flowers or plants like Lilia, Violeta, Roza, Temenujka, Iglika, Kamelia and celebrate their name day.
Holy Thursday – on this day Easter eggs are traditionally painted. The first egg to be painted must be colored red and it symbolizes the blood of Christ. It should be buried in the fields to ensure fertility or kept in the home until the following Easter to bring good luck.
Good Friday - is the anniversary of the Crucifixion and the day when a table is set up in churches representing Christ's coffin. The faithful climb underneath in the hopes of having a year full of health and fertility.
Holy Saturday – according Bulgarian tradition in the evening families and friends attend church together. They carry their colored eggs with them. At midnight they greet each other with the words “Hristos vozkrese” (Christ has risen). The response is “Voistina vozkrese” (He has risen indeed).
The next day families gather together on Sunday Easter lunch. People take turns in tapping their eggs against the eggs of others, and the person who ends up with the last unbroken egg is believed to have a year of good luck. Another important symbol associated with Easter is the lamb. The table is representing with roast lamb, Easter lettuce salad, eggs and Easter bread “Kozunak”.