I’m doing a personal project asking people from all countries for examples of values, philosophies, value systems, or beliefs of their nations’ culture—for instance, [ikagai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai) from Japan or [sisu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisu) from Finland. Please share some from Bulgarian culture and provide your definition (in English). I would really appreciate your help. Don’t worry if it doesn’t have a direct translation in English; your unique point of is what I’m looking for. I recognize many of these words don’t have direct English translations. Thank you.

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  3. I think different parts of the country have different philosophies but I’m not familiar with a general one.

    As we are an orthodox christian country you can pull anything from the Bible and use it as an example but that sucks imo.

    We have a Valhalla-esque quote: “Тоз който поне в бой за свобода, той не умира.” , aka “ He who falls in a battle for freedom never truly dies.” (H. Botev) but it’s been outdated since the 500y Turkish occupation as we don’t really fight for freedom anymore. Still very notable tho.

    When it comes to area-specific, you got things like the “айляк” (ailyiak) in Plovdiv which means “to take it easy” and has grown to be a city staple/philosophy of the residents.

  4. Many bulgarian sayings kind of feel depressing or don’t work well for the 21st century, but still:

    “Важното е да сме живи и здрави” – The most important thing is to be alive and healthy(with an implied continuation that everything else will come together). It goes together with “Дал Бог живот и здраве”, which means God gave us life and good health.

    “Който е забъркал кашата, той ще си я сърба” – Whoever made the soup, he will eat it. Soup here has a double meaning of a mess so it would mean something like “you deal with your own mess”. It couples with “Каквото сам си направиш, никой не може да ти го направи” – Whatever you do to yourself, noone can do to you. I think this one is used in English too.

    Lastly I’d say an ideal for us is the national motto, “Unity makes strength” which comes from a legend that khan Kubrat gathered his sons on his dying breath and told them to get some sticks. Then showed them how one stick is easy to break, but if you bunch them together they are really hard. Ironically they split right after his death 😀

  5. Balkaners generally believe in fate – there is a saying “What is destined for a head (a person) doesn’t happen to a stone”. Traditionally, there is a strong belief in living the day, regardless of success or failure. Bad things happen, and you must live through them, and if you are well off now (in any regard), you should take it for a given, because it’s mostly luck, and luck can change. Bragging is frowned upon and people also avoid it as not to challenge fate. Also, (especially among older generations) if you make a compliment, you must also say something bad, again to avoid challenging a bad turn of events.

  6. The most important concept in the Bulgarian philosophy is:

    “Най-важното е на кура блажното…”

    Which in translation means that the most important thing in the existence of one is the smegma of the penis. Good luck with your work!

  7. There is no convenient one-word term to share here. We do have something like sisu, the Bulgarians throughout the ages prided themselves on their ability to conquer adversity, but there is no single term for that.

    Another thing, a value, held in high regard is education.

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