Saint Theodore's Saturday
28 February 2026 · movable holiday — Giddy-up! Tonight the whole sky is a racetrack!
Saint Theodore's Saturday is a folk holiday at the start of Great Lent, linked to Saint Theodore Tiron (Todor), traditionally honoured as a warrior and protector of horses. According to popular belief, the saint watches over livestock, so owners groom and decorate their horses, and in many parts of Bulgaria horse races are held, called kushii (horse races), while the day itself is also known as Horse Easter (Konski Velikden). The winner receives a prize – a ritual loaf, a towel or another gift – and the race is held for the health of the horses and the household. In some places ritual breads are baked and shared for good health. The holiday is movable, because it depends on the date of Orthodox Easter, which is calculated by the Julian calendar – the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon following the spring equinox. Thus the day follows both the Sun and the Moon and to the turn from winter to spring.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure of a rider on a galloping horse with a flowing mane, drawn as a constellation of luminous dots and thin connecting lines, racing across the night sky and leaving a faint trail of stardust
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