The
day of the Christian saints Cosmas and Damian (in BG version: Kozma and
Damyan) is considered a very big feastday. No one works on that day to
protect themselves from getting sick. That day people pay homage to all
popular healers – wise-women, sorceresses and spinning-wheel men.
Sacrificial animals are votively slaughtered for health and sick people
visit curative springs and leave pieces of their clothes as signs of
the nearby "tricking out" for the sickness to remain there forever.
The
Christian cult to the two brothrers Healers Cosmas and Damian was
especially popular in the eastern parts of the Roman Empire (3rd c.)
The earliest icons around Bulgaria are dated 12th c. They are very
popular for their abilities to cure people. Their life abounds in
miracles connected to healing deaf, blind, wounded people. They are
widely known under the name of Holy Healers, and they never took any
payment for what they did.
Name day of everyone named Cosma, Kuzman, Damyan, Krassimir, Krassimira, Krassina.
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