Bulgarian Orthodox Church Celebrates Antonovden

17/1/2010

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church On Sunday honors the memory of the Venerable Anthony the Great, on the holiday called Antonovden.
Anthony was born in about 250 AD in Egypt. During his life he spent 20 years in complete solitude in the desert. Sick and suffering people came to him for help.

At the alleged age of 104 he entered into an open dispute with supporters of the doctrine of Arianism and defeated them. His success is called the Triumph of Christianity.

The following year Anthony died and was buried in a secret place. Later his relics were re-discovered and officially transferred to Vienna.
In the popular calendar Antonovden is celebrated for the prevention of diseases.

On this day, women do not spin or knit, do not boil beans or lentils, lest they provoke the onset of plague, or smallpox.

Traditionally, they knead soda roundbread, coated with molasses, to give to relatives and neighbors for health. One loaf is to be left in the attic “for the ache, for the aunt,” in other words, the plague.

In folklore, the twin brothers Anton and Atanas were blacksmiths who first invented the blacksmith tongs.

Therefore Antonovden and Atanasovden are also celebrated as the holiday of blacksmiths, ironmongers, cutlers and farriers.

Names being clebrated today include: Anton, Andon, Doncho, Antonia, Donka, Tony.

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