bluebird research

In Bulgaria, as in other Central and Eastern European countries, it is the custom to publicly announce and remember deaths by memorials affixed to certain recognised sites within a neighbourhood, for instance, pinned on boards or wall surfaces on particular street corners with frequent passing foot traffic, or near bus stops, or outside the parish church. It is common to see passers by pausing and cyclists dismounting to read the notices; they serve a similar purpose to obituaries published in newspapers and doubtless are read and discussed keenly by some local gossips. 

In Bulgaria, these black-bordered notices typically feature a reproduction of a black and white or colour photograph of the deceased, their full name (usually but not invariably complete with patronymic), vital dates and details of those mourning their loss. Sometimes a nickname is given too. 

As well as those notices posted immediately after death, in memoriam notices are often placed at, for example, 40 days, and at three and seven years after death. A deceased person may be remembered at 10 or 25 years too if, for example, they died prematurely, or are survived for many years by their widow or widower. 

There is something very touching about this public display of mourning and the levelling of an air force pilot, a TV anchorman, a teenaged motorcycle accident victim, a building caretaker and a nonagenarian widow appearing side-by-side on the same board, equally to be regarded or ignored by the living.