Both the Catholic and the Orthodox Church determine Easter in the same way. The Passion Week is after the first spring full moon and Easter falls on Sunday of the Passion Week. The difference in the dates on which both Churches celebrate comes from the fact that the Orthodox Church observes the Julian calendar, which lags 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar used by the Catholic Church.

It is a tradition in Orthodox Bulgaria to colour eggs on Holy Thursday or Holy Saturday. Egg is considered to be a symbol of the birth of man from nature. The first egg is always painted red by the eldest woman in the house. While the egg is still warm and freshly coloured, she draws a cross on the children’s foreheads for health. Eggs are used as an Easter greeting. People play egg tapping, and the winner becomes the one whose egg remains intact. The wooden egg is people’s favorite joke in the Bulgarian Easter.

Another Bulgarian tradition is the Ritual bread which is kneaded on Thursday, usually in a round shape, with red egg placed in the middle. One of the Easter breads is sweet and is called Kozunak.

On Easter in Bulgaria people eat lamb. It is a symbol of Jesus who is portrayed as Agnus Dei (the Lamb of God), also a symbol associated with his death as lamb was sacrificed on the day of Resurrection.
The rabbit is an Easter symbol in the Catholic Church, but during the recent years can be seen in Bulgaria too. In the past the Saxons were sacrificing rabbits in the name of the goddess of spring Eostre. There is a legend that Eostre became angry and transformed a big beautiful bird in a rabbit, but the rabbit was still thinking she was a bird and continued to make nests for laying eggs. Easter bunny carries a basket full of colored eggs, sweets and chocolates, hides it and the children try to find it in the morning of the feast.

In Belgium, Easter also marks the beginning of the spring after the long, tiresome winter. All the family gathers and celebrates with traditional foods such as ham, pancakes, eggs, chocolates, potatoes, lamb and sweet bread with colourful dried fruits. On this day children are engaged in searching for the chocolate eggs hidden in the garden or in the house, believing that the bells of Rome brought them during the “Silent Saturday”. The egg is a symbol of fertility.

A Belgian tradition is the magnificent Easter tree, decorated with colored eggs and other ornaments.
Although Easter is celebrated in different ways in Orthodox Bulgaria and Catholic Belgium, it marks the transition from darkness to light and from death to life in both countries.

We would say that 2011 was a year of rethinking and assessment of what we have done so far and what we need to do in the future.

Last year, a lot of important decisions were taken but their effect will be seen only this year. 2012 is expected to be year of development and growth.

What happened during the last few months in the company, you were preparing to step into the German market, what happened with this task?

We are already recruiting for one client in Germany. We hope that we will start cooperating with a few more companies in the months to come. We are preparing the launch of marketing campaign on the German market directed towards popularization of the Bulgarian IT specialists.

A year ago you moved into a new, bigger office due to your ambitions to expand your team. Did you find suitable candidates and how they are different from the other candidates you have met?

Yes, Nonillion team has expanded since last year and it keeps growing. So, moving into a bigger office was a really important step. At the moment we have several requests from clients for long-term projects, and we are currently looking to hire new qualified IT specialists.

The people who joined Nonillion team fit our requirements and the requirements of our clients. What makes them stand out is the combination of technical talent, experience and strong personal skills. Today it is not easy to find all these three qualities in an employee.

How the IT market in Europe has changed for the last year, are there any new tendencies which are influenced by the continuing economic stagnation?

The IT sector is never hit as hard as other sectors by the economic stagnation. Most companies can not function without information technologies, so cost cutting is very often moderate. Also the IT sector is an ever-expanding sector since it enters more and more new areas were it was not present before, like mobile phones, television sets, cars. More and more appliances have been digitalized which creates an ever-growing market and a structural shortage of IT specialists.

Most of this takes place in Western Europe which explains the increasing demand for IT specialists that we see there.

Another tendency is outsourcing part of the non-core processes. Outsourcing on the local market but also to neighboring destinations such as Bulgaria and companies like Nonillion.

The outsourcing of services and its natural extension “nearshoring” continue to be one of the most powerful tools for achieving optimal business results based on the correlation between qualified personnel and effective labor costs.

How do the Bulgarian IT specialists stand at the moment on that market?

IT specialists all over the world are more or less the same. They all love their computers and their coffee . The context of the environment they work in is what makes the big difference. In the Silicon Valley you will find much more challenging project than many other places in the world. And certainly the evolution of the skill set of the developer is in accordance with that.

We think that Nonillion has something to offer here. We have clients with high expectations and really challenging projects. So the developers who wish to work with us will be performing not only in a very nice working environment but will be bringing their skills to the next level.

You are a company with foreign capitals, but unlike most foreign investors you are based in Rousse. How does Nonillion work for stopping the “brain drain” in its industry in the country side and in Rousse in particular?

Nonillion is a company with a European vision. The capital is indeed Belgian and the company is Bulgarian but the market is European. We should be thinking ahead and adapt to the European concept.

Regarding our office in Rousse, at first sight it might seem like steaming upstream. Most foreign companies land in Sofia because this is the place to be. Certainly Sofia is the economic heart of Bulgaria and many highly qualified people leave hometowns (and their families) to settle down in Sofia. But for some of them this can be a painful decision and they are waiting for better times when they will be able to return to their hometowns.

Nonillion can give a helping hand here. We offer “At Home” jobs. We continuously strive to make Nonillion a better place to work in and our remuneration packages are one of the best in Rousse and the country side as a whole. We believe in the human approach towards people, our slogan “it’s about people” is not just marketing. We really do our best to make working and living better, of course in the economic context. We are not a non-profit organization either.

What are the IT positions expected to be in demand for 2012?

In 2012 almost all IT specialists will be in demand – from software developers due to increased number of projects for development to specialists in operation security, smart phones and cloud computing security defined by the increased need of optimal protection.

The planning of larger scaled projects for realization and search of optimal business solutions will lead to demand for Project managers who are good IT business analysts too. The growing role of social media in the businesses will define the high demand of web developers. Not less important will be the sourcing of IT experts in the sphere of Telecommunications due to the upgrade of computer technologies in the companies, as well as EDI specialists as a result of the fully digitized interchange of data in the businesses.

The company which has been cooperating for years with Belgian partners, has made its first steps on the German market and launched a recruitment campaign for one of its clients. At Nonillion they expect to start partnership with several other companies this year.

The specialists recruited by Nonillion are part of the client’s team in the corresponding country – Belgium or Germany. “This is a chance for the people who do not want to leave their country, to receive basically the same that they would receive abroad – opportunities to brush up their skills and increase their knowledge on the job, work on challenging projects which can bring an extensive experience but is not always offered on the Bulgarian IT market, appreciation of their efforts, a more competitive remuneration.”, Katina Simova says. She announced that during 2012 almost all IT specialists will be in demand – from software developers due to the ever-increasing number of software projects for development to specialists in security of operation technologies, smart phones, cloud computing for optimal protection. Not less important will be the sourcing of IT experts in Telecommunications due to the upgrade of computer technologies in the companies, as well as EDI specialists as a result of the fully digitized interchange of data in the businesses.

“Nonillion” is a Belgian company specialized in building outsourcing teams of IT professionals who work remotely with European companies from their software base in Rousse. The company has adopted the principle of “nearshoring” – outsourcing of IT business processes to close geographic areas (neighboring countries). A relatively new phenomena, nearshoring represents an optimized model of offshoring which has proved as risky and ineffective in the recent years due to the different time zones, cultural differences and stereotypes.