Saint Nicholas Day Since Nikoljdan always falls in the fasting period preceding Christmas, it is celebrated according to the Eastern Orthodox fasting rules ("Post"). Fasting refers in this context to the eating of a restricted diet for reasons of religion. This entails the complete avoidance of animal-sourced food products (meat, milk, dairy products and eggs). Fish may be eaten on certain days In Bulgaria, Saint Nicholas Day is celebrated on the 6 December as "Nikulden". Families invite relatives, sponsors and neighbors for a meal of fish (usually "ribnik", a carp wrapped in dough) and two loaves of ceremonial bread, all of which are
St Nicholas Cole Abbey shelter or shelter from the cold. The church was never an abbey. The earliest reference to the church is in a letter of Pope Lucius II in 1144-5. St Nicholas of Myra is patron saint of, among other groups, children and fishermen, and the church has special ties with both. An inventory of the church’s possessions taken at the time of the Protestant Reformation includes vestments for children, suggesting that the church maintained the tradition of electing a boy bishop on Saint Nicholas Day. Deeds in the reign of Richard I refer to a new fish market near St. Nicholas