Page 8 - Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens - September '22
P. 8

Page 8, Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens
      Bulgaria: Birthplace Of Spartacus




      By Don Kiselewski, MCC,                            B.C. Stephen Guide, a
      D.S., Palm Beach Gardens                           Bulgarian-American of the
      Travel Leaders                                     Institute of Transcendental
        Long before Bulgaria                             Analysis, claimed that he
      received its name, this                            had deciphered the tablets.
      land area bordering the                            However, I along with many
      Black Sea between Turkey,                          others haven’t heard or read
      Romania, Serbia, Macedonia                         the transcript.
      and Greece was known as                              The Thracian civilization,
      Thrace. Its people were the                        forerunner to Bulgaria, was
      Thracians and they started                         jointly founded by the Greeks
      recording  history  around                         and Romans. Romans had
      3500 B.C. The artwork – especially that which was produced   the command by the end
      in gold – is considered by archeologists to be the oldest in   of the first century A.D. At
      the world, dating back some 6,500 years.           the decline of the empire,
        Not only does Bulgaria have some of the oldest pieces of   the Goths, Avars, Huns and
      gold artwork, it also ranks third in the world for the number of   Bulgars invaded. In 679
      cultural sites after Greece and Italy. Bulgaria is said to have   A.D., the Bulgars crossed  A village in the wine region of Melnik, Bulgaria
      fostered the world’s first writing system. This claim is based   the Danube from the north
      on the engraved                                    and took control of the area.
      stones known as the                                  Although the country was
      Gradeshnitsa tablets                               named after the Bulgars,
      based on the location                              the language and culture
      where they are                                     of the people died out.
      kept. Gradeshnitsa                                 It was supplanted by the
      Monastery, also                                    Slavic language, religion
      known as St. Ioan,                                 and writing. Boris the
      is located in the                                  First adopted Orthodox
      northwest corner of                                Christianity for the country
      the  country. These                                in 865. Bulgaria is the
      tablets were found                                 birthplace of the Cyrillic  Bulgarian town of Sozopol
      in 1969 and are                                    alphabet, the second most
      examples of late                                   widely  used  alphabet  in  the  world. The  language  was   them back their independence. This came about as a result
      Neolithic  proto-                                  developed in the 10  century.                     of Turkey’s loss in the Russo-Turkish War (1877 to 1878).
                                                                        th
      w riting know n                                      Twice in their history, the Bulgars conquered the majority   This move by Russia worried the countries of Europe, fearing
      as “Old European                                   of the Balkan Peninsula between 836 and 1260. However,   the total dominance of the Balkans by the two nations. The
      Script.” The                                       they were defeated by the Ottoman Empire in 1396,   Congress of Berlin (1878) broke up the area, carving out a
      tablets were  dated  A cat perches outside an old home   becoming a Turkish province until 1876. It was the Russians   small principality for Bulgaria, which was ruled by Alexander
      to around 500  in the village of Bozenci, Bulgaria  that forced Turkey to release its hold on Bulgaria, giving   of Battenburg, a nephew of the Russian czar.
                                                                                                             Bulgaria fought several Balkan wars against the Turks
                                                                                                           and their allies. The second war cost Bulgaria all that it
                                                                                                           had achieved in area from the first war, surrendering to
                                                                                                           the Turks. Again Bulgaria came up on the wrong side in
                                                                                                           a war, siding with Germany in World War I. They had
                                                                                                           hoped to gain Macedonia as a conquest, but when the
                                                                                                           effort failed, King Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his son
                                                                                                           Boris III in 1918. Boris III squandered the assets of the
                                                                                                           country and assumed dictatorial powers in 1934 to 1935.
                                                                                                           Bulgaria sure didn’t know how to pick them, because
                                                                                                           they became an ally of Germany again in WWII. This
                                                                                                           time the Russians, once their ally, took over and imposed
                                                                                                           a communist coalition that took control of the country in
                                                                                                           September 1944.
      Traditional Bulgarian cuisine                      Two children in a traditional Bulgarian costumes at the Surva
                                                         fair, which is held annually in Pernik, Bulgaria  Bulgaria on page 9




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