Pupils from the art school at the Centre for Personal Development Support (CPLR) in Burgas won second place and four special awards in the 10th anniversary edition of the international competition "My Bulgarian Embroidered Shirt".

Musa Kadir took second place. Borisa Yankova, Valeria Lyutskanova, Eva Sheitanova and Siyana Vasselich received special awards for skill and creative achievement. Their teacher got a letter of thanks for her dedication and her contribution to helping young talent grow.

The exhibition opened on 6 November 2026 in the Winter Garden hall of the National Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) in Sofia, where the winners were also honoured. It runs until 13 November and will travel to Rome in February 2027.

Dr Iliya Valev, a chief assistant professor, opened the show. Museum director Assoc. Prof. Dr Mila Maeva and Dr Nezabravka Popova-Nedyalkova of New Bulgarian University, who chaired the jury for drawings, sent greetings and blessings to the guests.

Mariola Georgieva, director of the Asen and Iliya Peykov Cultural Association, also spoke. She said that for ten years in a row the competition has kept young people interested in Bulgarian folklore, traditional dress and the symbols of embroidery.

Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) received special recognition through journalist Tsveti Radeva, who reports on the competition every year and helps more people learn about it.

The organisers are the Bulgarian school "AzBuki" in Rome and Colleferro, the Asen and Iliya Peykov Cultural Association in Italy, and the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at BAS. The school and the association in Italy came up with the idea. Over the years the competition has become a well-known cultural cause that brings together Bulgarians from different parts of the world around their native traditions and national identity.

Girls from the same school at the CPLR in Burgas won first and third place at an international painting and graphic art competition in Minsk, as we reported in late October. Their teacher Sevina Traykova was also honoured.

The organisers want Bulgarians around the world, wherever they are, to wear a Bulgarian embroidered shirt every year on 11 May, the day of Saints Cyril and Methodius. For them, the embroidery stands for national memory and belonging, and links generations and Bulgarian communities abroad.