Yesterday I wrote that Bulgarians tend to believe in miracle-makers. But I didn’t say why. Actually Bulgaria is the land of esotericism. Any attempt to explain Bulgarian politics needs a reference to the national mysticism.
Bulgaria held its main events during its Presidency of the Council of the EU (first half of 2018) in the National Palace of. Few realised that this mega-building, which opened its doors in 1981, was named after Lyudmila Zhivkova, the daughter of Todor Zhivkov, who ruled Bulgaria with an iron fist from 1956 to 1989.
Zhivkova was a phenomenon in Bulgarian recent history. The influential daughter of the country’s strongman broke all the rules by openly developing her interests in religious mysticism and the occult. But she was also a powerful promoter of the Bulgarian cultural identity, especially in her capacity as Minister of Culture, since 1975 until her death in 1981.
1981 was the year of the 1300th anniversary of the Bulgarian state, founded by Khan Asparuh. At that time, for a small country as Bulgaria