Bulgaria is celebrating on Sunday the 124th anniversary since the unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia.

This year, however, the mood is subdued because the anniversary comes just one day after the tragic accident in the Ohrid Lake in Macedonia, in which 15 Bulgarians drowned as the tourist boat Ilinden went underwater.

With a decision of the Council of Ministers, all scheduled celebrations have been canceled and the only events to be held are church masses in memoriam of the departed. All flags in the country are at half staff. Bulgaria declared Monday, September 7, a National Day of Morning. (Macedonia is mourning Saturday.)

Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov, who traveled to Ohrid canceled his appearances, but is going to attend the memorial service for the victims at the city of Plovdiv. The Speaker of the Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva, will also attend the service and the laying of the wreath of the "Unification Monument" in Plovdiv this evening.

On September 5, 1885, the Principality of Bulgaria unified with the autonomous Ottoman province of Eastern Roumelia, a few years after its liberation from Ottoman yoke.

The historic proclamation was made after a march by a handful of Bulgarians from the small town of Saedinenie (Unification) to the town of Plovdiv, removing one of the gravest injustices imposed in the wake of the Berlin congress.

But it was not until 1886 when the Great Powers recognized the almost doubled state of Bulgaria with the Bulgarian-Ottoman treaty.

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