Religious observances and days off
St George’s Day on 6 May, Christmas and the four Easter holidays belong to both the church calendar and the statutory list of days off. They appear here even when their primary category on this website is “public holiday”.
Most saints’ days are ordinary workdays unless they fall at a weekend or coincide with another statutory holiday. On 1 January, St Basil’s feast coincides with New Year’s Day. New Year’s Day is the legal reason for the nationwide day off.
Reading the Easter cycle
Meatfare Sunday falls eight weeks before Easter and Forgiveness Sunday seven weeks before it. St Theodore’s Day is the first Saturday of Lent. Lazarus Saturday comes eight days before Easter, followed the next day by Palm Sunday.
Ascension is the fortieth day when Easter Sunday is counted as day one: the calculation adds 39 days. Pentecost is the fiftieth day, or 49 days after Easter. Use the year selector to view the corresponding civil dates.
Fasting periods and daily records
The table includes both endpoints of the four extended fasting periods. The Apostles’ Fast changes in length, while the Dormition and Nativity fasts have fixed dates. The period before Easter includes Holy Week, which is separate from the forty days of Great Lent.
The monthly list is a selection of feasts. Daily pages contain the fuller entries for years whose official Bulgarian Patriarchate calendar has been imported. A calculated future feast date does not mean that the website has the complete official calendar for that year.