TOMORROW is a Bulgarian national holiday in celebration of the country's liberation from the Turkish Yoke.

On this day in 1878 in San Stefano, near Constantinople, a preliminary peace treaty was signed between Turkey and the allied powers of Russia, Serbia and Romania.

Serbia, Romania and Montenegro gained independence. Bulgaria became an independent kingdom with Christian government and its own army. At that time the Bulgarian Kingdom consisted of northern Bulgaria and parts of Thrace and Macedonia.

The national holiday will be celebrated this year with a number of ceremonies throughout the country and abroad. In Sofia, the official ceremony is to start at 11am with the hoisting of the Bulgarian flag. Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov will then lay a wreath at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier.

At 6.30pm there will be a roll of honour of all who died for the freedom of Bulgaria, in front of the monument of Tsar Osvoboditel (the Russian Tsar-Liberator), and a firework display. Stoyanov, Parliament Speaker Yordan Sokolov, Prime Minister Ivan Kostov and Sofia Mayor Stefan Sofianski are all due to attend.

The Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov, who was due to arrive on an official visit to Bulgaria yesterday, has also been invited by Sofianski as an official guest at the ceremonies.

Stoyanov will host an official reception in honour of the holiday at the Boyana residence later tomorrow evening.

Also taking place on the holiday, a new independent station playing only Bulgarian music is due to be launched in Battenberg Square with a mega spectacle entitled Be Yourself, after a famous Bulgarian rock-song of the 1980s.

The chief executive of BG radio Nikolay Yanchovichin said: "This is the most suitable date for the start of a Bulgarian radio station, dedicated to popularising Bulgarian music."

The concert will start when the fireworks end and the line-up features some of the most prominent Bulgarian musicians, among them Stefan Vuldobrev, Vassil Naydenov, and Lili Ivanova and the groups D2, PIF, Irra, BTR, Signal and Antibiotika.

The Bulgarian Red Cross is also organising a traditional tribute to the memory of the doctors, medical assistants, pharmacists, nurses and auxiliaries who died during the Russo-Turkish war. It will be held today at 11am in front of the Doctor's Monument.

The state ensemble for folk songs and dances Philip Kutev was also due to perform in Vienna yesterday and today, for the occasion.