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On February 2 centers for community development celebrated the traditional feast Petlyovden. In Etropole there was organized a special discussion with the youths from the town. There were discussed the symbolic of the day and the legends related with it. In Novi Pazar, the Center for community development organized an entire theater spectacle with the collaboration of the students from “N.Y. Vaptsarov” Elementary School and “Theatric formation” leaded by Mrs. Miteva. The celebration began at 4 PM in a small hall, situated in the town. The community was informed about the event through special ads and in result of that there were more than 40 people on the theatre. In the “Theatric formation” there participate both students from the Professional Agriculture High School and “N.Y.Vaptsarov” Elementary School.

Roma people call Petlyovden “Bashnovden” or “Ihtimya” because it is connected with collecting of the worst human tax: the blood tax and with taking little boys from their homes to train them for warriors. The Roma groups of Drandari connect this day with a few legends. One of them says that a long time ago, during the Ottoman rule the Turks started to kill all the boys (Bulgarian and Roma). In order to be sure that every house was checked they were putting a bloody mark on the doors.  By this way they wanted to destroy these foreign families, because there is understanding that only boys are those who continue the clan. Then St. Evtim (Euthimius) appeared in front of a gypsy woman called Evtimiya and known as Ihtimya and ordered her to kill a rooster and with its bled to make a sign on the gate of the house. Ihtimya immediately fulfilled the words of the Saint and when the warriors saw the blood on her door they passed her house and they didn’t take her son. This is how Ihtimya saved her boy. Bashnovden is celebrated as a festival of the boy and the male’s strength and fertility.