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It's Palm Sunday!

The holiday falls on the Sunday after Lazarov's Day

Apr 9, 2023 05:00 47

Tsvetnitsa falls on the Sunday after Lazarov's Day, one week before Easter, and is one of the best spring holidays, writes imenata.com. It is dedicated to the solemn welcoming of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem with olive and laurel branches. Therefore, on this day, everyone goes to the festive church mass with willow branches, bunches of geraniums and other spring flowers.

After the priest consecrates the willow wreaths, they are taken home and placed in front of the home icon. With them women pray against lessons and diseases. Often, when there is thunder and rain in the summer months, they take the willow wreaths out into the courtyard and, uttering magic spells, look through them at the cloud so that it will be blown away.

Usually, on Palm Sunday, the last Lazarus custom is also performed – "the humming". Before lunch, all lazarkas head to the river together. Each girl carries with her a bouquet of flowers, a willow wreath or a small bread called a "doll". The maidens line up side by side along the shore or on the bridge over the river and simultaneously release the wrist, the wreath or the bread. The girl whose wreath or bread is carried away from the water the fastest and comes out first is chosen as the "kumitsa" or "godmother" of the lazarkas. From that moment on, she becomes an object of special respect and reverence from the other girls. On the third day of Easter, the godmother invites all the lazars to her home and treats them with pie and red Easter eggs. With this common feast, the festive Lazar complex ends, through which the girls demonstrate their new social status and their suitability for marriage.

Name day: Aglika, Peony, Veronica, Viola, Violetta, Verba(n), Verbinka, Gergin(a), Grozdena, Dahlia, Dafina, Delyan, Delyana, Dilyan(a), Detelina, Elitsa, Jasmine, Zdravko, Zdravka, Hyacinth, Willow, Needle, Primula, Kalina, Camellia, Carnation, Carnation, Bunch, Latin(ka), Lily, Liliana, Lilac, Lily, Vine, Lyulina, Magnolia, Raspberry(s), Marguerite( a) a), Tsvetomir(a), Tsviatko, Yavor, Yasen, Yasmina.