Three days are dedicated to Christmas celebrations in Bulgaria. Budni vecher, or Malka Koleda (little Christmas, i.e., Christmas Eve) sees off the end of the fasting period with a vegan feast. Hint - if you're vegan, the best way to assure suitable food year-round is to ask for "postna hrana" (fasting food). Interestingly, recipes I found for Budni vecher breads were all leavened with baking soda, not yeast. Below is a soda bread in which must be hidden the good-luck charms, and other traditional Christmas Eve and Christmas day dishes.

The midnight of December 24 into 25 begins Koleda (Christmas), the customary koledouvane (carolling of men) and permission to again eat meat, eggs and dairy products.

Traditional Budni vecher and Koleda recipes

Sodena pitka (round loaf of soda bread) with kusmeti (charms)
Ingredients: 1kg flour; 500g yoghurt; 1 teaspoon soda; 3 tablespoons oil; 1 teaspoon salt.

Directions: Pour the flour into a deep bowl, and make a well in the flour, into which add the yoghurt, which has been mixed with the soda. Add the oil and the salt. Mix the dough lightly, and turn onto a flat, clean, floured surface. Before starting to knead, add charms or well-cleaned coins. Kneed a few strokes, and form a ball. Place on an oiled baking tray and flatten lightly. With a knife, cut a cross on the top, and slash in a few places. Bake in a medium oven for about 30 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Let cool completely on a rack before placing in any kind of storage container!

To health - a spread for bread
Ingredients: 1 clove garlic; 100g chopped walnuts; 100g honey.

Directions: Mash the garlic with a little salt; add the walnuts and honey. If it seems too thick, add a tad of water. To serve, break off pieces from a loaf of bread and dip them in the mix.

Dried sweet peppers stuffed with beans
Ingredients: 10 or so dried sweet peppers; one onion, finely chopped; 3-4 stalks of leek (white part only), finely chopped; 500g dry white beans; 1 tablespoon oil; mint (djodjen); savoury (choubritsa); black pepper; red pepper; salt.

Directions: Prepare the beans, boiling till tender (or you can just use 4 tins of ready beans, drained). Soak the sweet peppers in boiling water for about 10 minutes. In a pan on the stove, cook the onion and leek in the oil. When soft, add the hot drained beans. Mix well; add chopped djodjen, choubritsa, black pepper and salt to taste. Mix well, then add red pepper to taste and remove from heat.

The mixture should be somewhat mashed, but not too much. With the slightly cooled mixture, stuff the deseeded peppers; sprinkle the openings with some flour. Place in rows in a oiled pan, drizzle with 1 soup spoon oil and bake for 15-20 minutes in a medium oven.

Oshav (fruit compote)
Ingredients: 500g dried fruit (plums, apples, apricots, cherries, etc.); 100g either honey or sugar.

Directions: Wash the dried fruit well and let it rehydrate for about 12 hours in cold water. Remove the fruit from the liquid, and filter the liquid. Replace the fruit in the liquid and simmer until  tender. During this time, add honey or sugar to taste. Leave in the pot until cool, then place in a deep glass or ceramic dish to serve.

Zelenik with crust
Ingredients: 1kg/5 tea cups flour; salt; 200g/1 tea cup bulgur; 2 bunches/600g spinach, lapad (dock, a leaf in the same family as sorrel, but not sour), sorrel, kopriva (nettles) or other edible green leaves; 1 tablepoon (100ml) oil.

Directions: Make a dough from flour, salt and water, as for banitsa. Roll out pieces of the dough, and brown lightly on a dry griddle, then cover with a towel, so they become soft. Clean the vegetables, dry and chop them, then cook with the bulgur in a little oil and some water. Place the prepared dough discs on a baking tray, and sprinkle them with a little oil and the prepared filling. Bake in a medium oven. When the undersides of the zeleniks have browned, turn them over so the top sides brown as well. Upon sufficient brownness, remove from oven and cover, so they become soft. Slice and serve with yoghurt or ayran (yoghurt-water-salt beverage).

Christmas kapama
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken; 500g beef; 500g pork; 300g kaima (ground spiced meat); 300g smoked pork (gurdi); 200g raw nadenitsa (a type of thin, spiralled sausage); 1 kiselo zele (sour cabbage); 100g raw rice, cooked; 2-3 onions; 1 tablespoon oil; a cup of red wine; black pepper; red pepper; choubritsa (savoury); salt.

Directions: Make a filling for the chicken out of half of the rice, the chopped giblets, the choubritsa and black pepper. Stuff the chicken and sew closed (or use toothpicks). From the cabbage, take 12-13 leaves, leaving them whole; chop the remaining finely. In the 12-13 whole leaves, make little rolls (surmichki) stuffed with a mix of the kaima, chopped onion, remaining rice and black and red pepper. In a large ovenproof pot, layer chopped kiselo zele, surmichki, then the chicken, then the cubed smoked pork, nadenitsa and sliced beef and pork. Pour over the top the oil and red wine. Assure the tight closure of the pot, and place in a medium oven for at least 3-4 hours.

Dry baklava
Ingredients: 350g flour; 300g butter; 8 eggs; 300g sugar; 1 teaspoon ground coffee; 1 teaspoon spoon (10g) cocoa; 20g chocolate; 250g walnuts; powdered sugar.

Directions: Make a dough out of the flour, butter and one egg. Divide it in half and make two 1/2cm rectangular crusts. Place one of the crusts on a buttered baking tray, and keep the other in a cold place. Prepare the filling: mix the 7 yolks with the sugar, and add the coffee, cocoa, chopped chocolate, ground walnuts. In two or three steps, gently add to this the 7 whites, which have been beaten till stiff. On the first crust, spread the filling. Place on this the second crust. Bake in a medium oven till it seems done. While the baklava is still warm cut into diamonds and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Christmas medenki (honey-spice biscuits)
Ingredients (for about 80): 250g powdered sugar; 3 eggs; 120g honey; 400-500g flour; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon ginger (optional); 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg; pinch salt; pinch ground cloves.

Directions: Mix all the ingredients together. Roll out the dough to about 1cm and cut out figures with cookie cutters. Bake at 220 °C on an oiled oven tray until desired degree of doneness. While still warm, brush with egg white that has been beaten stiff. Decorate as desired.