Each November 1st all Bulgaria celebrates the Day of the Leaders of the National Revival. This year, a group pf patriotic Bulgarians initiated the future construction of a ?Memorial Temple of Spirituality? in Plovdiv. It will bear the names of all the contemporary successors of those Leaders: writers, artists, actors and theatrical figures, community workers, scientists ? all whose lives have been connected with Plovdiv? A new association has been founded, with Radka Koleva ? Director of the Ivan Vazov National Library as its Chairman, aiming at raising funds for the construction of that memorial.
The Municipal Council will organize a contest for the best plastic vision of that memorial complex, which is expected to be raised next to the National Library. The initiating group has a deadline in mind ? November 1st, 2004. Until then, they hope to gain support and financial aid by all the Plovdiv citizens who really care about their city and would like to leave a trace for the future generations. A bank account has been opened for the sums donated in favour of that Association: Municipality bank OB Plovdiv, acc. 1011 164 306, code 13072815. Each donation will be accompanied by a contract, pointing the exact amount of the donation.
For the year 2003, the following Plovdiv culture and science figures have been declared Successors of the Leaders of the National Revival: the composer Assen Diamandiev and the mathematician Kiril Atanassov. The celebrations will start today at 5.30 pm, at the Ivan Vazov National Library hall. Flower tributes will be laid earlier at the monument of Nayden Gerov, the eminent leader of the National Revival ? born 180 years ago in the family of Hadji Gero Dobrevich-Moushek, a teacher from the town of Koprivshtitsa.
Nayden Gerov finishes secondary school and later college in Odessa, Russia ? he graduates a major equal to today?s ?Business and Administration? from the Odessa Richelieu College. He was the author of the first Bulgarian poem ?Stoyan and Rada?, of the first Physics text book, he was also considered the father of the first ?travel story?. He was the initiator of the first May 11th celebration of the Cyril and Methodius Day, the Day of Bulgarian Culture and education ? the school he founded in Plovdiv (the first Plovdiv high school) had their names as patrons. His most eminent work, though, was his ?Dictionary of Bulgarian Language?. The content of that dictionary was carefully collected and revised for half a century ? it contained more than 70 000 items and 20 000 proverbs, folk song texts and expressions, all presenting the live Bulgarian language from all regions.