January 1 – New Year’s Day March 3 – National Holiday (Bulgaria’s Day of Liberation from Ottoman rule) May 1 – Labour Day May 6 – St. George’s Day, Day of the Bulgarian Army May 24 – Day of Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture and of Slavonic Alphabet September 6 – Bulgaria’s Unification Day September 22 – Bulgaria’s Independence Day November 1 – Enlightenment Leaders Day – a day-off for educational institutions only December 24 – Christmas Eve December 25 and 26 – Christmas Easter – two days (Sunday and Monday); moveable holiday
Public holidays are generally non-working days for state institutions, schools and most private businesses. Banks are closed on the day itself.
Restaurants, bars and cafes are open. Large shops are often open, but not on Easter Sunday, Christmas Day or New Year's Day, though you may find small corner shops are open.
On September 6, Plovdiv was the centre of celebrations of the 1885 episode in which Bulgarians achieved unity by rejecting the statelet of Eastern Roumelia