Bulgarians: Difference between revisions

Bulgarians
*Българи*
*Bǎlgari*
Total population
	c. 9–11.3 million; 7.3 million Bulgaria nationals
Related ethnic groups
	Other South Slavs, especially Macedonians
	^ a: The 2011 census figure was 5,664,624. The question on ethnicity was voluntarily and 10% of the population did not declare any ethnicity, thus the figure is considered insufficient and ethnic Bulgarians are estimated at around 6 million.; ^ b: Estimates of the number of Pomaks whom most scholars categorize as Bulgarians;

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Bulgarians (

ethnic group who are native to Bulgaria

and its neighboring regions.

Citizenship

According to the Art.25 (1) of Constitution of Bulgaria, a Bulgarian citizen shall be anyone born to at least one parent holding a Bulgarian citizenship, or born on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, should they not be entitled to any other citizenship by virtue of origin. Bulgarian citizenship shall further be acquirable through naturalization.^[49] About 77% of Bulgaria's population identified themselves as Bulgarian in 2011 Bulgarian census.^[50]

Ethnogenesis

The population of Bulgaria descend from peoples with different origins and numbers. They became assimilated by the Slavic settlers in the First Bulgarian Empire, three of which left something remarkable.

the ancient pre-Slavic indigenous peoples, notably Thracians, from whom cultural and ethnic elements were taken;^[51]^[52]
the Early Slavs from whom the language was inherited;
the Bulgars from whom the ethnonym and the early statehood were inherited.^[53]^[54]

From the indigenous

Moesia Inferior appear to have been Romanized,^[63] although the region became a focus of barbarian re-settlements (various Goths and Huns) during the 4th and early 5th centuries AD,^[64] before a further "Romanization" episode during the early 6th century.^[65] According to archeological evidence from the late periods of Roman rule, the Romans did not decrease the number of Thracians significantly in major cities. By the 4th century the major city of Serdica had predominantly Thracian populace based on epigraphic evidence, which shows prevailing Latino-Thracian given names, but thereafter the names were completely replaced by Christian ones.^[66]

The Early Slavs emerged from their original homeland in the early 6th century, and spread to most of the eastern

Antes.^[69] Some Bulgarian scholars suggest that the Antes became one of the ancestors of the modern Bulgarians.^[69]

The

Kouber, crossed the Danube river and settled in the Balkans with a single migration wave, the former of which Michael the Syrian described as numbering 10,000.^[76]^[54] The Bulgars are often not thought to have been numerous, becoming a ruling elite in the areas they controlled.^[54]^[77] However, according to Steven Runciman a tribe that was able to defeat a Byzantine army, must have been a of considerable dimensions.^[78] Asparukh's Bulgars made a tribal union with the Severians and the "Seven clans", who were re-settled to protect the flanks of the Bulgar settlements in Scythia Minor, as the capital Pliska

was built on the site of a former Slavic settlement.

During the Early Byzantine Era, the Roman provincials in Scythia Minor and Moesia Secunda were already engaged in economic and social exchange with the 'barbarians' north of the

South Slav language.^[84] In different periods to the ethnogenesis

of the local population contributed also different Indo-European and Turkic people, who settled or lived on the Balkans.

Bulgarian ethnogenetic conception

The Bulgarians are usually regarded as part of the

country's EU accession, the opinion on significant Thracian and/or Bulgar genetic impact, was launched among nationalist circles, that lately have downplayed the country's Slavic ancestry.^[94]^[95]

Genetic origins

According to a triple –

Gagauzes, and they are at similar proximity to Montenegrins and Serbs.^[52]

History

The First Bulgarian Empire was founded in 681. After the adoption of

Preslav at the eve of the 10th century.^[96] The development of Old Church Slavonic literacy in the country had the effect of preventing the assimilation of the South Slavs into neighbouring cultures and it also stimulated the development of a distinct ethnic identity.^[97] A symbiosis was carried out between the numerically weak Bulgars and the numerous Slavic tribes in that broad area from the Danube to the north, to the Aegean Sea to the south, and from the Adriatic Sea to the west, to the Black Sea to the east, who accepted the common ethnonym "Bulgarians".^[98] During the 10th century the Bulgarians established a form of national identity that was far from modern nationalism but helped them to survive as a distinct entity through the centuries.^[99]^[100]

In 1018 Bulgaria lost its independence and remained a Byzantine subject until 1185, when the

Catholic community in the northwestern part of the country.^[110] At that time, a process of partial hellenisation occurred among the intelligentsia and the urban population, as a result of the higher status of the Greek culture and the Greek Orthodox Church among the Balkan Christians. During the second half of the 18th century, the Enlightenment in Western Europe provided influence for the initiation of the National awakening of Bulgaria in 1762.^[111]

Some Bulgarians supported the Russian Army when they crossed the Danube in the middle of the 18th century. Russia worked to convince them to settle in areas recently conquered by it, especially in Bessarabia. As a consequence, many Bulgarian colonists settled there, and later they formed two military regiments, as part of the Russian military colonization of the area in 1759–1763.^[112]

Bulgarian national movement

During the

rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire

led to a struggle for cultural and religious autonomy of the Bulgarian people. The Bulgarians wanted to have their own schools and liturgy in Bulgarian, and they needed an independent ecclesiastical organisation. Discontent with the supremacy of the Greek Orthodox clergy, the struggle started to flare up in several Bulgarian dioceses in the 1820s.

It was not until the 1850s when the Bulgarians initiated a purposeful struggle against the

Bulgarian nationalism gained greater significance, following the Congress of Berlin which took back the regions of Macedonia and Adrianople area, returning them under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Also an autonomous Ottoman province, called Eastern Rumelia was created in northern Thrace. As a consequence, the Bulgarian national movement proclaimed as its aim the inclusion of most of Macedonia, Thrace and Moesia

under Greater Bulgaria.

Eastern Rumelia was annexed to Bulgaria in 1885 through bloodless revolution. During the early 1890s, two pro-Bulgarian revolutionary organizations were founded: the

Macedonian Slavs were identified then predominantly as Bulgarians, and significant Bulgarophile sentiments endured up among them until the end of the Second World War.^[114]^[115]^[116]^[117]^[118]

In the early 20th century the control over Macedonia became a key point of contention between Bulgaria, Greece, and

(1941–1944)

.

Demographics

Most Bulgarians live in

Canada, Austria, and Germany and labour emigration at the end of the 1990s, directed for the most part to Greece, Italy, the UK and Spain. Migrations to the West have been quite steady even in the late 1990s and early 21st century, as people continue moving to countries like the US, Canada and Australia. Most Bulgarians living in Canada can be found in Toronto, Ontario, and the provinces with the most Bulgarians in Canada are Ontario and Quebec. According to the 2001 census there were 1,124,240 Bulgarian citizens in the city of Sofia,^[120] 302,858 in Plovdiv, 300,000 in Varna and about 200,000 in Burgas. The total number of Bulgarians stood at over 9 million.^[121]^[122]

Related ethnic groups

Until the early 20th century,

Slavic-speakers of Greek Macedonia

usually self-identified as Bulgarians.

Bulgarians are considered most closely related to the neighbouring Macedonians; indeed it is sometimes said there is no discernible ethnic difference between them.

Torlaks in Serbia have also had a history of identifying as Bulgarians and many were members of the Bulgarian Exarchate, which included most of the territory regarded as Torlak. The greater part of these people were also considered Bulgarians by most ethnographers until the early 20th century and beyond.^[125]^[126]^[127]^[128]

Culture

The Bulgarian culture has largely the product of influence of incoming cultures and is now going through westernization, especially the cuisine.

Language

Bulgarians speak a

mutually intelligible with Macedonian and to a lesser degree with Serbo-Croatian, especially the western dialects.^[129] The lexical similarities between Bulgarian and Macedonian are 86%, between Bulgarian and each other Slavic language are 71%-80%, but with the Baltic languages they are 40-46%, while with English are about 20%.^[130]^[131] Only fewer than a dozen of Bulgarian words are derived from Turkic Bulgar.^[54]

Bulgarian demonstrates some linguistic developments that set it apart from other Slavic languages shared with

Medieval Bulgarian

influenced the other South Slavic and Romanian. With Bulgarian and Russian there was a mutual influence in both directions. The language of each other was official or lingua franca of each other in the Middle Ages and the Cold War. Recently, Bulgarian has borrowed many words from German, French and English.

The Bulgarian language is spoken by the majority of the Bulgarian diaspora, but less so by the descendants of earlier emigrants to the U.S., Canada, Argentina and Brazil.

Bulgarian linguists consider the officialized Macedonian language (since 1944) a local variation of Bulgarian, just as most ethnographers and linguists until the early 20th century considered the local Slavic speech in the Macedonian region. The president of Bulgaria Zhelyu Zhelev, declined to recognize Macedonian as a separate language when the Republic of Macedonia became a new independent state. The Bulgarian language is written in the Cyrillic script.

Cyrillic alphabet

Old Bulgarian

language

In the first half of the 10th century, the

Naum of Ohrid

. Bulgaria exerted similar influence on her neighbouring countries in the mid- to late 14th century, at the time of the

Church Slavonic was the official language of the princely chancellery

and of the church until the end of the 17th century.

Name system

There are several different layers of Bulgarian names. The vast majority of them have either Christian (names like Lazar,

Boris

has spread from Bulgaria to a number of countries in the world.

Most Bulgarian male surnames have an -ov

surname suffix

(Cyrillic: -овa), for example, Maria Ivanova. The plural form of Bulgarian names ends in -ovi (Cyrillic: -ови), for example the Ivanovi family (Иванови).

Other common Bulgarian male surnames have the -ev

surname suffix

(Cyrillic: -ева), for example: Galina Stoeva. The last name of the entire family then would have the plural form of -evi (Cyrillic: -еви), for example: the Stoevi family (Стоеви).

Another typical Bulgarian surname suffix, though less common, is -ski. This surname ending also gets an –a when the bearer of the name is female (Smirnenski becomes Smirnenska). The plural form of the surname suffix -ski is still -ski, e.g. the Smirnenski family (Bulgarian: Смирненски).

The ending –in (female -ina) also appears rarely. It used to be given to the child of an unmarried woman (for example the son of Kuna will get the surname Kunin and the son of Gana – Ganin). The surname suffix -ich can be found only occasionally, primarily among the

Roman Catholic Bulgarians

. The surname ending –ich does not get an additional –a if the bearer of the name is female.

Religion

Map of the Bulgarian Exarchate (1870–1913). The Ottomans required a threshold of two thirds of positive votes of the Orthodox population to include a region into this jurisdiction.^[132]

Most Bulgarians are at least nominally members of the

Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Greece, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova

nowadays hold allegiance to the respective national Orthodox churches.

Despite the position of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as a unifying symbol for all Bulgarians, small groups of Bulgarians have converted to other faiths through the course of time. During Ottoman rule, a substantial number of Bulgarians converted to Islam, forming the community of the

Paulicians

who fled there at the end of the 17th century after an unsuccessful uprising against the Ottomans. Protestantism was introduced in Bulgaria by missionaries from the United States in 1857. Missionary work continued throughout the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. Nowadays there are some 25,000 Protestant Bulgarians in Bulgaria.

Art and science

Atanasoff-Berry computer, legally the inventor of the electronic digital computer in the U.S. and considered the "father of the computer".^[135]^[136]^[137]

Boris Christoff, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Raina Kabaivanska and Ghena Dimitrova made a precious contribution to opera singing with Ghiaurov and Christoff being two of the greatest bassos in the post-war period. The name of the harpist-Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean is one of the best-known harpists today. Bulgarians have made valuable contributions to world culture in modern times as well.

Christo is among the most famous representatives of environmental art with projects such as the Wrapped Reichstag

.

Bulgarians in the diaspora have also been active. American scientists and inventors of Bulgarian descent include

John Atanasoff, Peter Petroff, and Assen Jordanoff. Bulgarian-American Stephane Groueff wrote the celebrated book "Manhattan Project", about the making of the first atomic bomb and also penned "Crown of Thorns", a biography of Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria

. According to Mensa International, Bulgaria ranks 2nd in the world in Mensa IQ test-scores and its students rate second in the world in SAT scores.^[138]^[139] Also, international MENSA IQ testing completed in 2004 identified as the world's smartest woman (and one of the smartest people in the world) Daniela Simidchieva of Bulgaria, who has an IQ of 200.^[140]^[141] As of 2007 CERN employed more than 90 Bulgarian scientists, and about 30 of them will actively participate in the Large Hadron Collider experiments.^[142]

Cuisine

Famous for its rich salads required at every meal, Bulgarian cuisine is also noted for the diversity and quality of

tarator. There are many different Bulgarian pastries as well such as banitsa

.

Most Bulgarian dishes are oven baked, steamed, or in the form of stew. Deep-frying is not very typical, but grilling—especially different kinds of meats—is very common. Pork meat is the most common meat in the Bulgarian cuisine. Oriental dishes do exist in Bulgarian cuisine with most common being moussaka, gyuvetch, and baklava. A very popular ingredient in Bulgarian cuisine is the Bulgarian white brine cheese called "sirene" (сирене). It is the main ingredient in many salads, as well as in a variety of pastries. Fish and chicken are widely eaten and while beef is less common as most cattle are bred for milk production rather than meat, veal is a natural byproduct of this process and it is found in many popular recipes. Bulgaria is a net exporter of lamb and its own consumption of the meat is prevalent during its production time in spring.^[143] Bread and salt tradition in context of welcoming, which is spread in Balto-Slavs, is the usual welcoming of strangers and politicians.

Folk beliefs and customs

Bulgarians may celebrate Saint Theodore's Day with horse racings. At Christmas Eve a Pogača with fortunes is cooked, which are afterwards put under the pillow. At Easter the first egg is painted red and is kept for a whole year. On the Baptism of Jesus a competition to catch the cross in the river is held and is believed the sky is "opened" and any wish will be fulfilled.

Bulgarians as

nestinarstvo (нестинарство), or firedancing, distinguishes the Strandzha region, as well as Dog spinning. The authentic nestinarstvo with states of trance is only preserved in the village Balgari

. This ancient custom involves dancing into fire or over live embers. Women dance into the fire with their bare feet without suffering any injury or pain.

St. Vlas, the tradition of a "wooly" god Veles established itself, a god who is considered to be a protector of shepherds, and bread is given to the livestock on that day.^[149] The ancient Slavic custom to marry died people occurred in Bulgarian society.^[149] Survakane is performed each new year with a decorated stick by children, who hit adults on the back for health at the New Year Eve, usually in exchange of money. In the Chech region there is a custom forbidding "touching the land", i.e. construction and agriculture, at the equinox on 25 March and the same custom is found in Belarusian Volhynia and Polesia.^[149]

Bulgarian mythology and fairy tales are mainly about forest figures, such as the dragon

Domovnik and Vodnik a dualistic nature is attributed.^[149] Thanks to the Vlshebnik, a man of the community, a magician and a priest, communication with the "other" world was held.^[149] Torbalan is the Sack Man used to scare children, along with Baba Yaga, who is a witch in her Bulgarian version ^[149]

Nasreddin Hoca, whereas Bay Ganyo

is a ridiculed Bulgarian villager. Ivancho and Mariika are the protagonists of the jokes.

Despite eastern Ottoman influence is obvious in areas such as cuisine and music, Bulgarian folk beliefs and mythology seem to lack analogies with

Asparukh's Bulgars is popular.,^[151]^[152]^[153] but Slavic elements are found among them.^[154]

Folk dress and music

The Bulgarian folk costumes feature long white robes, usually with red embrdoiery and ornaments derived from the Slavic Rachenik. The Bulgarian folk costume is considered to be mainly derived from the dress of the

Ukrainian hutsul, but the kalpak is attributed to Ottoman influence. The male skirt fustanella appears on the dress only of the Macedonian Bulgarians and is of indigenous Balkan origin or influence. In some dress of Thrace the symbol of the snake as in medieval tombs is found and is considered a Thracian cultural legacy and belief.^[149]

Folk songs are most often about the nymphs from Bulgarian and

horo and khorovod. Songs are generally loud. Recent eastern influences from the genre music chalga and turbo-folk

even brought a prestige for the masculine voices of females.

Valya Balkanska is a folk singer thanks to whom the Bulgarian speech in her song "Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin" will be played in the Outer space for at least 60,000 years more as part of the Voyager Golden Record selection of music included in the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977.

Sport

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@@ Line 261: / Line 261: @@
 ===Sport===
 {{main article|Sport in Bulgaria|Football in Bulgaria}}{{multiple image|align=left
-|image1 = Hristo stoichkov-2010 (crop).jpg|width1=92|caption1= [[Hristo Stoichkov]], awarded the [[Ballon d'Or (1956–2009)|Golden Ball]] and regarded as one of the best footballers by Barcelona.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/english/club/historia/jugadors_de_llegenda/stoichkov.html |title=HRISTO STOICHKOV &#124; FCBarcelona.cat |publisher=Fcbarcelona.com |date= |accessdate=2015-02-11}}</ref>
+|image1 = Hristo stoichkov-2010 (crop).jpg|width1=92|caption1= [[Hristo Stoichkov]], awarded the [[Ballon d'Or (1956–2009)|Golden Ball]] and regarded as one of the best footballers by Barcelona.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/english/club/historia/jugadors_de_llegenda/stoichkov.html |title=HRISTO STOICHKOV &#124; FCBarcelona.cat |publisher=Fcbarcelona.com |date= |accessdate=2015-02-11 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://archive.is/20130103000543/http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/english/club/historia/jugadors_de_llegenda/stoichkov.html |archivedate=3 January 2013 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>
 |image2 = Veselin Topalov Sofia Airport 24.10.2005.pic-01.jpg|width2=121|caption2=[[Veselin Topalov]], the 21st [[World Chess Champion]].
 |image3 = |width3=130|caption3=[[André the Giant|André Roussimoff]], the most famous [[World Wrestling Federation|WWF]] wrestler.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=00XoU40tLO8C&pg=PA66 |title=Tributes II: Remembering More of the World's Greatest Professional Wrestlers |author1=Dave Meltzer |author2=Bret Hart |website=Books.google.com |date= 2004-01|accessdate=2016-11-22|isbn=9781582618173 }}</ref>

Total population
c. 9–11.3 million 7.3 million Bulgaria nationals^{Catholic and Protestant minorities}
Related ethnic groups
Other South Slavs, especially Macedonians^[41]
^ a: The 2011 census figure was 5,664,624.^[42] The question on ethnicity was voluntarily and 10% of the population did not declare any ethnicity,^[43] thus the figure is considered insufficient and ethnic Bulgarians are estimated at around 6 million.^[44] ^ b: Estimates^[45]^[46] of the number of Pomaks whom most scholars categorize as Bulgarians^[47]^[48]

v t e Slavic ethnic groups
East Slavs	Alaskan Creoles Belarusians Belarusian Latvians Belarusian Lithuanians Belarusian Poles Belarusian Russians Karyms Gurans Molokans Podlashuks Poleshuks Russians Albazinians Cossacks Albazinians Baikal Cossacks Don Cossacks Kuban Cossacks Nekrasov Cossacks Siberian Cossacks Terek Cossacks Greben Cossacks Doukhobors Goryuns Harbin Russians Kamchadals Kamenschiks Lipovans Polekhs Pomors Semeiskie Siberians Starozhily Rus’ people Rusyns Lemkos Boykos Hutsuls Pannonian Rusyns Rusyn Romanians Ukrainians Zaporozhian Cossacks → Kuban Cossacks Hutsuls Boykos Podolyans Volga Bulgarians Litvins
West Slavs	Chodové Czechs Gorals Silesian Gorals Kashubians Gochans Krubans Slovincians Lechites Masurians Moravians Poles Bambers Borderlands Poles Bug River Poles Greater Poland people Kaliszans Taśtaks Kociewians Kurpies Lasovians Łęczycans Lesser Poland people Masovians Łowiczans Międzyrzec Boyars Poborzans Polish Uplanders Russian Poles Sącz Lachs Sieradzans Warmians Obotrites Ruhrpolen Silesians Cieszyn Vlachs Slovaks Sorbs Lower Sorbs Wends Texas Wends Upper Sorbs
South Slavs	Bosniaks Bosniak Albanians Bosniak Croatians Bosniak Kosovars Bosniak Montenegrins Bosniak Serbians Bulgarians Anatolian Bulgarians Banat Bulgarians Bessarabian Bulgarians Bulgarian Albanians Bulgarian Croatians Bulgarian Hungarians Bulgarian Italians Macedonian Bulgarians Pomaks Thracian Bulgarians Croats Bunjevci Burgenland Croats Croat Muslims Janjevci Krashovani Molise Croats Šokci Gorani Macedonians Albanian Macedonians Bulgarian Macedonians Mijaks Torbeši Montenegrins Ethnic Muslims Resians Serbs Bosnian and Herzegovinian Serbs Kosovo Serbs Macedonian Serbs Montenegrin Serbs Croatian Serbs Vojvodina Serbs Serb Muslims Shopi Slavic speakers of Greek Macedonia Slovenes Carinthian Slovenes Croatian Slovenes Hungarian Slovenes Italian Slovenes Prekmurje Slovenes Venetian Slavs Yugoslavs

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