The Bulgarian wine feast: Tradition and transformation

Rashkova, Natalia (2013) The Bulgarian wine feast: Tradition and transformation. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 58 (2). pp. 347-357. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

The article is focused on the traditional Bulgarian St. Trifon’s Day, which has long been celebrated as a feast of wine and vine-growers. Its roots can be traced back to the ancient Thracian cultural heritage mixed with paganism and Christianity. The whole ritual complex with the symbolic forms of behaviour during the ritual actions, as well as verbal blessing formulas, is intended to ensure economic prosperity and infl uence the fertility of the vineyards. Using the sustainability of traditions, during the totalitarian regime the authorities turned the St. Trifon’s Day into a component of the socialist festive system as a professional celebration of vine-growers. Over the last two decades of transition, the ideological clichés of the socialist period gave way to new transformations of the feast. Today, the semantic content of the event resembles a “postmodern” patchwork of folk traditions, Christian rites and urban festivity, which is inherent in current volatility in the production of cultural realities.

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