Wine Day, or St Trifon Zarezan’s day, continues to be celebrated in Bulgaria on 14th February every year as per the old Julian calendar, even though the Orthodox church introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1968, changing the date of the festival to 1st February. Rituals on the day are centred around pruning the vines in preparation for new growth in the spring, with the second part of St Trifon’s name translating as The Pruner. The day starts at sunrise when the men face the sun in the fields, crossing themselves. Wine plays a large part of the day, with libations being poured on the ground for fertility, as well as being used to wash the vine cuttings. These are made into wreaths that are placed on the men’s caps throughout the ceremonies on the fields. While women are not normally involved in the pruning, other than in some regions of south western Bulgaria, they are responsible for preparing the traditional food required for the day, in the form a round loaf of bread, symbolising new life, and a roast chicken stuffed with rice to send with those going pruning outside. There is further feasting at home, with the vine wreaths being brought back to place on the household icon, with everyone joining together to have a good time and drink a lot of wine.
St Trifon is followed by Candlemas on the next day (2nd or 15th February) and St Simeon (Simon) the day after that on 3rd or 16th February. These last two days are used to observe the weather and predict the best time to release the silkworms outside to produce silk. From 1950s to 1990s, Bulgarian was the number one silk producer of silk within Europe, and came in at 7th or 8th place in world rankings for the same. There was a massive decline in silk production in the 1990s with various strategies being subsequently implemented to increase this industry. There are strong connections again to renewals, growth and new life again with the coming of spring and better weather.
The festival’s origins are old, stemming from Dionysus as the god of wine, and worshiped by the Thracians before the acceptance of Christianity as the state religion in the 9th century. The Christian church often absorbed older deities into itself to appeal to the local population, transforming into saints like Trifon, who acquired their own mythology. St Trifon himself was said to have been born around 225 AD in Asia Minor to Christian parents, who brought him up to be faithful to God. As it was usual in the period, the Romans were not always tolerant of Christians so St Trifon was arrested circa 250 AD and tortured and decapitated. In icons, the saint is usually shown with a pruning knife, leading to the belief that he was a vine grower when alive and hence his becoming the patron saint of wine growers and wine making. Fun fact: one legend regarding St Trifon states that he became obsessed and rather distracted by a beautiful woman walking past him while he was trimming vines. He fell in love with her on first sight, losing complete control of his limbs in the process and chopping off his nose. After this accident, St Trifon gained a new nickname of the snub nosed and has links to Valentine’s Day as well. In yet another story about why St Trifon is called snub nosed is that he managed to cut off his nose while being very drunk from his wine, using his vine shears. Use that as a warning story about staying away from sharp objects while drunk!
Myself and my other half celebrated a joint Valentine's Day/ St Trifor Zarezan a little belatedly this year and decided to bring the pub home as we couldn't go out. I had ordered a pub beer set from #BlackSheepBrewery, with a collection of Orkney cheeses as my present from Jollys of Orkney. This was all accompanied by a home made beef and ale pie and plenty of wine. Any sharp objects were kept well away too!
Comments