Independence Day
22 September 2026 — Ding-dong! The Tarnovo bell rings: Bulgaria is independent!
On 22 September 1908, in the Church of the Holy Forty Martyrs in Veliko Tarnovo, Prince Ferdinand I read a manifesto declaring Bulgaria's full independence. Until then the country had been a principality formally dependent on the Ottoman Empire. Ferdinand took the title of tsar. The Ottoman Empire recognised independence in 1909, following agreements involving Russia and other great powers. The day is a public holiday, marked with official ceremonies, the raising of the tricolour, wreath-laying and celebrations across the country, especially in Veliko Tarnovo. The holiday has no link to celestial events and falls on a fixed date in the Gregorian calendar. Interestingly, Bulgaria still used the Julian calendar in 1908 (the Gregorian one was adopted in 1916), so the event dated 22 September in the old style corresponds to 5 October in the new style. A ringing bell seems a fitting figure to cross the sky.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver bell made of luminous dots and fine connecting lines, like a constellation, swinging gently as it drifts across the night sky
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