Bulgarians facts for kids

Bulgarians are a group of people who come from Bulgaria, a country in southeast Europe. They are part of a larger family of people called South Slavs. About 7.3 million Bulgarians live in Bulgaria. They speak the Bulgarian language. Many Bulgarians also live in other countries like Germany, Ukraine, Spain, the UK, and the USA.

Culture

Language

The Bulgarian language is a South Slavic language. It is very similar to the Macedonian language. Around 9 million people speak Bulgarian.

Bulgarian is special because it is different from most other Slavic languages. For example, it does not use many noun cases. These are special endings on words that show their role in a sentence. Also, Bulgarian uses a definite article, which is like saying "the" before a noun.

The Bulgarian language is written using the Cyrillic script. This alphabet was created in the First Bulgarian Empire. Today, 12 other languages also use the Cyrillic script.

Religion

The main religion in Bulgaria is Bulgarian Orthodoxy. This form of Christianity has been important in Bulgaria since 870 AD. A small number of Bulgarians also became Muslims during the time of the Ottoman Empire.

Bulgarian folk dancers wear traditional national costumes.

Images for kids

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  Officers from a Bulgarian hussar regiment in Russia (1776–1783).

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  The Cyrillic alphabet used for the medieval Old Bulgarian language.

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  Map of the Bulgarian Exarchate (1870–1913). This shows areas where the Orthodox population voted to join this church.

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  Kukeri performers from the area of Burgas. They wear masks and costumes to scare away evil spirits.

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  Girls celebrating Lazaruvane from Gabrа, Sofia Province. This is a spring ritual.

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  Map of A. Scobel, Andrees Allgemeiner Handatlas, 1908.

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  A map from 1911 showing where different Balkan peoples lived.

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  Ethnic groups in the Balkans and Asia Minor by William R. Shepherd, 1911.

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  A map from 1914 showing where European peoples lived, by L. Ravenstein.

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  A Swiss map of Europe showing ethnic groups, published in 1918 by Juozas Gabrys.

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  The percentage of Pomaks by their first language in the 1965 Turkey census.

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  Where Bulgarians lived in Odessa Oblast, Ukraine, according to the 2001 census.

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  Where Bulgarians lived by first language in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine, according to the 2001 census.

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  A map showing the main ethnic groups in Bulgaria from the 2011 census.

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  Where Bulgarians lived in Romania according to the 2002 census.

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  Where Bulgarians lived in Moldova according to the 2004 census.

See also

In Spanish: Pueblo búlgaro para niños