Bulgarian Women Tributes Midwives, Men Banned

Society | January 21, 2006, Saturday // 00:00
Bulgarian Women Tributes Midwives, Men Banned Thirty babies, aged up to a year, joined the competition for the fastest crawl in Bulgaria’s second-biggest town of Plovdiv. The neck-to-neck race hailed the nation-wide festivities when Bulgarians pay tribute to midwives. Photo by BTA

With a variety of colourful rituals, Bulgaria marks the day of midwives Saturday on the so-called Babinden.

Traditions have it that early in the morning the midwives visit the children they have delivered, and wash their faces with water. Then the mother of the child helps the midwife wash her hands and gives her a bar of soap and a towel as a gift.

In the evening, all midwifes sit down to a generous table. Men are not allowed to join the festivities and hardly would dare anyone breach the rule.

The same festivities are traditionally organized in Bulgaria on January 8, which is the Gregorian calendar date for paying tribute to midwives.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!

Society » Be a reporter: Write and send your article

Advertisement
Advertisement
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish the latest economic, political and cultural news that take place in Bulgaria. Foreign media analysis on Bulgaria and World News in Brief are also part of the web site and the online newspaper. News Bulgaria