Date and public holiday status
St Paraskeva’s Day is an Orthodox church feast celebrated every year on 14 October. Its Bulgarian name is Petkovden. It is not a public holiday: it is a normal working day in Bulgaria.
The day also marks a name day, a celebration associated with a person’s given name. Those celebrating include people named Petko, Petka, Paraskeva, Parashkev and Penka, as well as those with related names.
St Paraskeva and her legacy
St Paraskeva of Bulgaria, also known as St Petka, is one of the most revered saints in the Balkans. Born in the 11th century in Epivates on the Sea of Marmara, she devoted herself while still young to prayer and a hermit’s life in the Jordanian desert. Towards the end of her life, she returned to her hometown.
In the 13th century, Tsar Ivan Asen II brought her relics to the capital, Tarnovo, and she became the patron saint of the Bulgarian kingdom. Her relics were later moved and are now kept in Iași, Romania.
Many churches in Bulgaria are dedicated to St Petka. Among them is the small medieval Church of St Petka of the Saddlers, known as Sveta Petka Samardzhiyska, in central Sofia.
Petkovden in folk tradition
In Bulgarian folk tradition, Petkovden is associated with women and domestic work, particularly spinning and weaving. It also marks the end of autumn work in the fields: by this day, the harvest should have been gathered and the wheat sown.
In many villages, the occasion is marked by community gatherings, the baking of pita, a traditional bread, and horo, traditional folk dancing.