A WOODEN CALENDAR FROM

SOUTHEASTERN BULGARIA

Vesselina Koleva1, Iliya Georgiev2

1
Institute of Astronomy, BAS, P.O.Box 136, 4700 Smolyan, Bulgaria,
e-mail: ves_koleva@abv.bg
2
University "Prof. Dr. Asen Zlatarov", 8010 Burgas, Bulgaria

Introduction
Wooden calendars are a specific tool for preserving the church calendar
in medieval Europe. The Christian symbols are skillfully interwoven with
traditional signs, which mark the days of importance for the economic and
ritual life in a year. The archaic method of time reckoning has turned into a
tool for disseminating and establishing the Christian festival system, and is
one of the proofs of the syncretism between the pagan tradition and the new
religious ritualism.
Bulgarian Christians used such objects until the beginning of the 20th
century. The earliest date fixed on a wooden calendar is 1783 [1]. These
calendars are also called rabosh in Bulgaria. The calendar presented here is
based on the Julian (solar) calendar containing the major fixed feasts of the
Orthodox Church. It has not been published so far and is kept in a private
collection.

The wooden calendar from Lyulyakovo

The calendar's owners were Bulgarians who moved to the village of
Lyulyakovo, Burgas region, from the village of Chatal Tepe, Lampsak
region, in Asia Minor in 1913. Legends tell that Chatal Tepe was set up in
the 17th - 18th century by Bulgarians who left their villages in the
Ivaylovgrad region in order to make charcoal and breed stock for a living. In
1913, their descendants were forced to migrate to the newly liberated
Bulgaria together with a large number of other Christian Bulgarians from
Asia Minor and eastern Trace, whose homes remained within Turkey under
the peace treaty of Bucharest. It is noteworthy that all known rabosh
calendars from southeastern Bulgaria were property of Bulgarian migrants
from these territories [2], [3].

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 The calendar, like the rest of the Bulgarian rabosh calendars, is carved
on a four-sided stick. The stick is 713 mm long and the width of its sides
varies between 17 and 25 mm (Fig. 1). It weighs only 140 grams. The color
of the stick is dark brown to black. There are peeled off spots on the surface,
which suggest that the calendar has a kind of varnish coating. Probably later
incised notches reveal wood of light brown color.
The structure of the “record” is as simple as possible. On the four
edges, at intervals of 5 to 9 mm, short 5 to 7 mm long notches are carved.
The total number of notches is 366. Nine wider and 20 to 50 mm long
notches varying in shape separate the 12 months from one another. The
months are distributed in seasons, in groups of three on each of the four
edges. The number of days in each month corresponds to the Julian
calendar. February contains 29 notches. A sign between the last two notches
shows the two possible ways of reckoning: 28 days in a normal year and 29
days in a leap year. There are no special signs marking the day distribution
in weeks.

Figure 1. Pictures of each of the four sides of the calendar from Lyulyakovo
The beginning of the reckoning could be the beginning of the church
year, September 1, which is marked by a cross-shaped sign at one end of
the stick. The schedule of fixed feasts in the Menaion (a set of twelve books,
one for each month, containing the liturgical services for the fixed feasts)
begins on September 1 - the New Year's and Indiction Day of the Byzantine
Empire. It always includes the feasts of Christ, Virgin Mary and other
Christian saints, as well as the feasts of many Old Testament saints.
March is located on the opposite edge after a wider, long notch at the
very beginning of the stick. There is no festive sign on March 1. March
contains the day of the vernal equinox, in relation to which the date of the
most significant Orthodox festival, Easter (Christ's Resurrection, Pascha), is
determined. A large number of ancient luni-solar calendars, including the
Slav ones, had their beginning in March.

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 The beginning of the reckoning could also be the beginning of the civil
year, January 1, which is located in the middle of the stick. Right in front of
this date, in the middle of the long notch separating December from
January, there is a (probably later) little round groove. Close to the date
January 1, placed on opposite edges we find April 23 (St. George's Day) and
October 26 (St. Dimiter's Day). These two dates mark the beginnings of the
summer and the winter half-year periods of the economic year.
The dates June 24 (Birth of St. John the Baptist) and December 25
(Christmas, Christ’ birth), which are connected to the summer and winter
solstices, are on the left end of the stick. The dates March 25 (the
Annunciation, Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and September 23
(Conception of John the Baptist), related to the vernal and autumn
equinoxes, are to be found on the right end of the stick.

Figure 2. Scheme of the signs on the four sides of the wooden calendar
from Lyulyakovo

Date Feast in the orthodox calendar Date Feast in the orthodox calendar
Septem A-side 3 St. Simeon & Anna the Prophet
ber
1 New Year; New Indiction; St. Simeon 8 St. Theodore Stratelates the
Great Martyr;
8 Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary St. Zachariah the Prophet
14 Exaltation of the Holy Cross 10 St. Haralambos Hieromartyr
23 Conception of St. John the Baptist 17 St. Theodore of Tyre the Great
Martyr
26 The Falling Asleep of St. John the 24 1st and 2nd Finding the Head of
St. John
Theologian (the Apostle and the Baptist
Evangelist)

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October 25/26 (newer short notch)
26 St. Dimiter the Myrrhstreamer Mart C-side
Novem 9 Sts. 40 Martyrs of Sebaste
ber
1 Sts. Unmercenaries Cosmas & Damian 12/13 (newer short notch)
8 St. Michael the Archangel 14/15 (newer short notch)
9 (short notch) 25 Annunciation of the Blessed
Virgin Mary
13 St. John Chrysostom April
14 St. Philip the Apostle 1 (short notch)
15 (short notch) 23 St. George the Great Martyr
21 The Entrance of the Blessed Virgin 24 (short notch)
Mary
into the Temple 25 St. Mark the Apostle and
Evangelist
22 (short notch) May
25 St. Katherine the Great Martyr 2 Relics of St. Atanasius the Great
26 (short notch) 8 St. John the Theologian
28 St. Stephen the New 9 St. Isaiah the Prophet; Relics of
St.
30 Apostle Andrew the first Called Nicholas
Decem B-side 21 Sts. Constantine and Elena
ber
4 St. Barbara the Great Martyr 25 3rd Finding of the Head of the
Baptist John
5 St. Sava the Sanctified June D- side
6 St. Nicholas the Wonderworker 4 St. Metrophanes the Patriarch of
7 (short notch) Constantinople
9 Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary 11 Sts. Bartholomew & Barnabas
the Apostles
12 St. Spiridon the Wonderworker 24 Nativity of St. John the Baptist
18 St. Modest the Patriarch of Jerusalem 29 Sts. Peter & Paul the Apostles
20 St. Ignatius the God-Bearer 30 Synaxis of the 12 Apostles
25 Holy Nativity of Jesus Christ July
26 Synaxis of the Blessed Virgin Mary 1 Sts. Unmercenaries Cosmas &
Damian
27 St. Stephen the Protomartyr 7 St. Nedelya – Kiriakiya the
Great Martyr
January 17 St. Marina the Great Martyr
1 Circumcision of Jesus Christ; St. Basil 20 St. Elias the Prophet
the
Great; New Year 25 The Falling Asleep of St. Anna
6 Holy Epiphany 26 St. Hermolaus the Hieromartyr
7 Synaxis of St. John the Baptist 27 St. Panteleimon the Great
Martyr

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 9 St. Polyeuctus the Martyr 31 Sanctify of the church in
Vlaherna,
10 St. Gregory of Nyssa August
17 St Anthony the Great 1 St. 7 Maccabean Youts
18 St. Athanasios the Patriarch of 5 Forefeast of the Transfiguration
Alexandria
20 St. Euthymios the Great; St. Evtimy the 6 Holy Transfiguration
Patriarch of Tyrnovo 7 Afterfeast of the Transfiguratin
25 St. Gregory the Theologian 14 Forefeast of the Falling Asleep
27 Relics of St. John Chrysostom 15 The Falling Asleep of the
Blessed Virgin
30 Three Saints Mary
February 16 Icon “Not Made by Hands” of
Jesus Christ
1 St. Trifon the Martyr 23 Conclusion of the Falling
Asleep; St. Lup
2 Meeting of Christ in the Temple 29 Beheading of the Baptist John

Table 1. Identification of the signs on the wooden calendar with some

Christian festivals

The dates from March 9 to 25 and from December 9 to 18 are especially

underlined by parallel to the edges notches. One of the reasons for this
might be to mark the days around the dates of the vernal equinox and the
winter solstice which reaches 12 days in the 19th century and 13 days in the
20th century due to the inaccuracy of the Julian calendar. (The Council of
Nicaea in AD 325 fixed March 21 as the date of the vernal equinox.)
The direction of reckoning of the days is from right to left on the first
edge, then continuing from left to right on the next edge, i.e. the reckoning
takes place without a break (the so-called boustrophedon style). Interrupted
day reckoning, i.e. which takes place in one direction only, is found very
rarely.
Reading of the festive signs
The festive signs are incised on the sides of the stick and are related to
precise day notches. The signs including straight line, two-edged pitchfork,
trident and their combinations are typical markers of the fixed Orthodox
festivals on all rabosh calendars from western, southern and southeastern
Bulgaria. In our case, there are several letter-signs, which are noteworthy
because they are very rare. Along with the festive sign for January 1, the
letter “C” is added (from Сурва, Surva - the Bulgarian folk name for the
feast of Christ's Circumcision). The letter-signs “Д” for October 26

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(Димитровден, St. Dimiter's Day in Bulgarian) and “A” for December 9
(Анино зачатие, Conception of St. Anna) are also used. Cross-shaped signs
mark the dates September 1, September 14, August 29 (Fig. 2).
A specific peculiarity in our case are the broad shallow grooves around
some major feasts which bear traces of older short notches in the days
before or after the feast.
The identification of the signs on the wooden calendar with some
Christian festivals is given in Table 1.
It is presumed that the one who used such a calendar knew well the
number of days, weeks and months between the different fixed feasts. For
example, people knew the major feasts, which fell on one and the same day
of the week. A prerequisite is also to remember the day of the week when
the year starts or the date of the first Sunday in a year. Then one will be able
to calculate the date of the Resurrection and Easter Day and to determine the
dates of the rest of the movable feasts during the year.

Conclusions
The rabosh calendar from Lyulyakovo confirms the fact that people paid
special attention to and were very careful when making such “eternal
calendars”. A proof that the calendar was highly appreciated and necessary
for its owners is the fact that after almost 200 years of usage by different
generations and in different social and historical circumstances the calendar
has reached us safe and sound. We can assume that when making a wooden
calendar the craftsman consciously tries to achieve a good mnemonic
structure, which in turn speaks for thorough knowledge of the official and
the traditional calendars.
The wooden rabosh calendar could be considered as one of the archaic
“tools” to pass on the calendar knowledge to next generations in a
multilingual and multicultural environment in order to strengthen the
position of Christianity in the cult practice and ritualism of the people.

References
1. K o l e v a E. Naroden kalendar – rabosh ot 1783 godina. Muzei i pametnici na kulturata,
1, 1967, 20-23
2. V a k a r e l s k i Hr. Bit i ezik na trakijskite i maloazijski bylgari. Chast I. Bit. Sofia,
1936, 269-273
3. G o r o v G. Strandzhanskiyat vechen naroden kalendar – “pop”. More, 9-10, 1997, 9-11

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