According to the popular calendar
this day is considered the beginning of the new economic year
and thought to be an agricultural holiday mainly. Before the holiday
the peasants take the seeds for the soughing into the church to
sanctify them. They put ashes from the tree that they have burnt
on the Christmas Eve
in the seeds. In the morning on the holiday the women knead wheat
dough and make breads for the oxen and the buffaloes that will
plough the fields. Small ring-shaped buns are also made and they
are put on the cattle's horns. The man that will plough and sough
are dressed up for the holiday and the women walk by them and
throw embers so that the work could go well. After the first furrow
is ploughed the ritual bread is torn into four pieces - the first
is thrown in the East, the second is given to the buffaloes, the
third is buried in the field and the forth is eaten by the landlord.
The tradition demands that no one
land anything and no one takes anything out of the house on Simeonovden
to prevent from the fertility going out of the house.
It is not allowed to cook, wash
or hang out the clothes. If the people that come to the house
are good, the harvest will be fertile.
The walnuts from the trees are usually
shaken down on Simeonovden that is why the holiday is sometimes
called Simeon (Simon) that shakes down the walnuts.
Church Holiday: St. Simon
Stulpnik know to the Bulgarians as "Simon the ploughman".
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