MM Park Bulgaria

Description

Bulgarian Younak badge, August 1907.

Manufacturer / main description

Bulgarian Younak badge.

“Activity is strength”.

With ribbon.

August 1907.

City of Pleven.

In the Bulgarian national colours: white, green and red.

These colours were adopted in 1879, one year after the country’s liberation from the Ottoman Empire.
White symbolizes peace, green the fertility of Bulgarian lands, and red the courage of the people.

Younak sports association:

In the years following the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule, one of the main priorities of Bulgarian society was the education of the younger generation. One of the first people to try to introduce physical education into the country was the chemistry teacher Todor Yontchev, who invited ten gymnastics teachers from Switzerland. Between 1895 and 1897 the first gymnastics associations were created. One year later, the Union of Bulgarian Gymnastics Associations “Younak” was founded. Its first president was Todor Yontchev.

“The people enrolled in these associations came from different social backgrounds,” says Katia Dimitrova, chief curator of the Sports Museum in Sofia. “From senior officials to people with almost no education, which once again confirms the unifying role of sport in our society, even in those early years of the reborn Bulgarian state. Later, Tsar Boris III became the royal patron of the Union. Even after the birth of his heirs, Marie-Louise and Simeon, he said that he wanted his children to be educated in patriotism within the ranks of this organization.”

The members of the associations built, with their own resources, the first gymnasiums and stadiums where young people learned dancing, athletics, boxing, fencing, wrestling, cycling and, in some towns, swimming, rowing and horse riding.

“At the Sports Museum we have dedicated a large part of our space precisely to the Union “Younak”, and this is no coincidence, because it developed a very rich cultural and educational activity, making it a unique organization in Bulgarian sport. In reality, it laid the foundations of modern physical education in Bulgarian schools and of the practice of many sports in our country. And few people know this”, explains Katia Dimitrova.