Date and holiday status
The Orthodox Church honours St Mary Magdalene on 22 July every year. In Bulgaria, this is not a public holiday: it is a normal working day.
The date is also a name day for Maria and Magdalena. The names celebrated include Magda, Madlen and related names. A name day is the celebration associated with a person’s given name.
St Mary Magdalene and the myrrh-bearers
Mary Magdalene came from Magdala in Galilee. After Christ healed her, she became his faithful follower. The Church honours her as “equal to the apostles”.
She was among the myrrh-bearing women, the women who came to Christ’s tomb on the third day. Mary Magdalene was the first person to whom the risen Christ appeared.
The tradition of the red egg
According to a tradition shared across the Orthodox world, Mary Magdalene travelled to Rome to see Emperor Tiberius. She offered him an egg with the greeting “Christ is risen!”
The emperor replied that this was as impossible as the egg turning red. At that moment, the egg turned red. This story explains why Mary Magdalene is often depicted holding a red egg, and the tradition is linked to Easter.
Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women
Alongside her feast on 22 July, Mary Magdalene is honoured with the other myrrh-bearing women on the second Sunday after Easter, known as the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women.
In the Orthodox world, this day celebrates the women whose faithfulness and care kept them beside Christ until the cross, and who were the first to learn of the Resurrection.