2019-09-06 Fri

Celebrated on 6th September, Unification Day is a national holiday of Bulgaria. It commemorates the unification of Eastern Rumelia and Bulgaria in 1885. After the medieval Bulgarian empire was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1396 AD, Bulgaria was formally restored as a nation-state on March 3, 1878, after the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78. Under the San Stefano peace treaty between Russia and Ottoman Turkey, Bulgaria was set up as a state on a territory of 170 000 square kilometers encompassing the three historic-geographic regions traditionally inhabited by Bulgarians - Moesia, Thrace, and Macedonia. In July 1878, all the regions were separated by the Berlin treaty. Bulgaria's entire political and social life was marked by the desire to unify all Bulgarian-populated lands in one nation-state. On September 6, 1885, the Principality of Bulgaria unified with the autonomous Ottoman province of Eastern Roumelia, a few years after its liberation from Ottoman rule. The celebrations of Bulgaria's Unification Day are traditionally held the night of September 6 in Plovdiv, the city which once was the capital of the Ottoman province of Eastern Roumelia. In the capital Sofia, the celebrations begin at 11:30 am at the tomb of Knyaz (King) Alexander I Battenberg. The stamp shown above is worth 0.60 Bulgarian levs and depicts a growing tree with the colors of stamps on the background. The stamp was issued on the occasion of the 125th Anniversary of the Unification of Bulgaria. Image Courtesy: https://colnect.com Visit philamart to view and purchase variety of stamps from all over the world.