Holidays in Bulgaria - Liberation Day of Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke

At the beginning of March, Bulgaria celebrates its liberation from the Ottoman yoke. For almost five centuries, the Christian country was under the yoke of Muslim laws and paid tribute to the Ottoman Empire not only in gold and food, but also in living goods. Every fifth boy from the family was taken to the barracks and raised as a Janissary. Temples and churches stopped being built; monasteries survived only in remote mountainous areas. The policy of Islamization, actively pursued by the Porte on the territory of the Bulgarian Principality and other Balkan countries, led to the establishment of Christianity as the main enemy of the occupiers. Many Orthodox Christians died, refusing to change the faith of their ancestors. In those days, accepting Islam meant treason. Tightening policies towards Christian countries and increasing taxes led to massive uprisings among the local population. But the more the Sublime Porte weakened, the more bloodily the popular unrest and riots were pacified. The uprisings in 1875-1876 in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Bulgaria were suppressed with such brutality that even Western countries, willingly providing military support to the Ottomans in the fight against Russia (Crimean War), tried to force Porto to equalize the rights of Christians with the Muslim population. However, this did not bring any results, all the signed decrees remained only on paper, and in fact the Orthodox residents remained as powerless as they were.