This year I managed to visit Kalugerovo village for St. Theodore’s day – also known as Horse Easter. In Kalugerovo each year on the first Saturday after the Quadragesima Sunday is organized one of the most interesting holidays including attractive horse races called Kushii.
Saint Theodore’s day is a religious holiday and it honors St. Theodore Tyron. Traditionally, the celebration begins with a ceremonial blessing of the horses and continues with folklore program.
The celebrations include various contests and competitions. One of them is horse beauty pageant. During the festival you can really see many beautiful thoroughbred horses, rare breeds not common in Bulgaria. I personally was impressed with the size of some of the horses:
Kushii
Certainly you can not see such horses in the streets and roads. One of the biggest attractions of Saint Theodore’s day celebrations are the horse races called Kushii. The reaces take place on the wide meadows near the Kalugerovo village.
This year the organizers had done their best and there was a draw with many prizes – car and bike being the biggest win.
Another big attraction is towing sledges for the heavy horses. Unfortunately I could not attend this competition, but I know that it involved horses weighing more than 850 kg and towing load of 2.5 to 3 tons:
The program for the Saint Theodore’s day is filled with attractions and adrenaline. I advise anyone who loves horses to visit at least once this holiday. Horse Easter and Kushii are organized in different parts of the country so that everyone has the opportunity to participate.
