During the years of communism Bulgarian daily life was outwardly dominated by a system of mass organization that attempted to penetrate every sphere of private life. Beneath this, however, people maintained their own customs and traditions.

Family is one of the most important values in Bulgaria. It is the norm for families to consist of parents and their children. It is rare for married couples to have more than two children. Until recently, most Bulgarians believed that a happy life could be achieved only through having a family and it was generally discouraged to divorce. Even though divorce is becoming increasingly common, Bulgarians still value family ties and this is reflected in their behavior toward each other.

Most Bulgarians work in the cities but they also cultivate their own land to provide for themselves and their families. The country is rich in agricultural products. It is a major exporter of different cereals, technical crops, fruits, vegetables, viticulture and honey.

The most popular drink in the country is rakia and it can be found everywhere – at home, at restaurants and bars. The best rakia is made with the highest quality ingredients and it is filtered several times to reduce its content of impurities.

There are a number of other traditional drinks in the country including ovski chasni and samovar. ovski chasni is a fruity, red sparkling wine, which can be served as an aperitif or digestif. Samovar is a brandy which can be served in many ways. It is often mixed with lemon juice and soda water to make a refreshing drink and it can also be added to cocktails.

Throughout the summer, you will find bulgarians spending their time outside grilling meat and the most beloved dish is cheverme, which is lamb slowly cooked on a spit over fire. It is usually prepared for special occasions like weddings, birthdays and graduations and can be enjoyed at all sorts of folklore festivals around the country.

In the winter, a popular food is chomlek, which is a traditional clay pot casserole filled with layers of tomato sauce, seasoned pork and a mixture of boiled potatoes, onions, carrots and veal. It is also a common tradition to break eggs at Easter. This is done in the form of a competition and the person with the last unbroken egg is believed to have good luck for the year ahead.

The standard Bulgarian language maintains a middle ground between the macrodialects and it preserves the palatalization of consonants before central and back vowels. It also allows reduction of /a/ and /o/ as well as the plain articulation of /e/. These morphological characteristics create a complex structure of different tenses and moods in the language. In general, the verb morphology in Bulgarian is more complicated than in most other Slavic languages. This is primarily due to the existence of multiple conjugations of the same root. In addition to the four grammatical tenses of other Slavic languages, Bulgarian has three modal positions, two aspects and five moods.