November 1 - Day of the Leaders of the Bulgarian Revival

November 1 is one of the official holidays in the Republic of Bulgaria. On this day, people celebrate and pay respect to the achievements and memory of the leaders of the Bulgarian Revival – to all those enlighteners, revolutionaries and fighters for liberation, who played a major role for the preserving of the spiritual values and the morality of the Bulgarian nation. The first unofficial celebration of the holiday took place in Plovdiv in 1909. People paid respect to their heroes nationwide which in 1922 gave reason to Stoyan Omarchevski (back then Minister of the People’s Enlightenment) to propose the Council of Minister to declare November 1st as a national holiday and a day-off for all schools in Bulgaria. Despite its great cultural and national importance, the day of the leaders of the Bulgarian Revival was forbidden in 1945, when the communist government decided Bulgaria already had a similar holiday – the Day of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, which is still celebrated as the day of the Bulgarian enlightenment and culture. The celebration of November 1 was resumed in 1990 on the initiative of the Mati Bulgaria union.