site.btaNation Celebrates Awakeners' Day

November 1 (BTA) - On Sunday Bulgaria marked National
Awakeners' Day commemorating its writers, scholars, educators
and freedom-fighters.

The holiday was first observed in Plovdiv, Southern Bulgaria in
1909. In 1923 it was inaugurated as a national day of
remembrance for distinguished Bulgarians. Banned by the
communist regime in 1945, it was reinstated in 1992. It is a day
 off for all educational establishments in the country.

President Rumen Radev, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, the head
of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Neophyte, government
 ministers and political party leaders extended Awakeners' Day
greetings to the nation on Sunday.

Referring to the ongoing anti-government protests, President
Radev said in his statement: "Each of those intransigent people
who used the light of their cell phone to join a whole sea of
light in the square in Sofia and many other cities across
Bulgaria is an awakener."

"Each satirist," Radev said, "who uses language and cartoons to
expose demagogy and corruption is an awakener. Each journalist
who dares to search for and illuminate the truth is an
awakener."

Prime Minister Borissov said that doctors and teachers are the
most obvious awakeners nowadays. "For their dedication and
self-sacrifice in this difficult and unusual situation [caused
by the coronavirus pandemic], they deserve appreciation and
gratitude," Borissov said.

According to Patriarch Neophyte, today's awakeners, faced with
new challenges, uphold the holy cause of Bulgarian spirituality,
 education, science and culture.

The usual public celebrations and parades for National
Awakeners' Day were not held this time to avoid mass gatherings
during the COVID-19 crisis. RY/VE

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