20 December is 'Ignazhden'
in Bulgaria

This festival venerates the bishop of Antioch, Saint Ignatius Theophorus, sentenced to death because of his Christian faith and thrown to the lions. It was from the day of St. Ignatius to Christmas Eve that Virgin Mary's labours continued. Christmas and New Year festivities begin from Ignazhden. The popular belief holds this day as the beginning of the new year, that is why in some places in Bulgaria its name is Nov den (translated as 'New Day'). And since it is the start of a new year, it is very important what man or woman first steps in the house - good or bad. Upon this personality depends the whole year ahead....

Saint Ignatius lived in the first-second centuries A.D., was thrown to the lions in Rome, where he died as a martyr. He is believed to have said: "I am God's wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ's pure bread."

The feast's traditional connection with the beginnings of the Virgin's labor as well as its association with new life and new beginnings clearly mark it as a Christian holiday substituted for a much older winter solstice celebration.

Until the end of the 19th century, mainly in the villages, people used home-made candles for the church as charms against ill-wishers.