Bulgaria’s people celebrates St. Tryphon’s Day on February 14 – it is one of the most sustainable folk customs which has preserved its pagan image. The fest is celebrated across the whole country and it is related to the winter-to-spring transition process. Devoted to vines and wine, St.Tryphon’s Day is a merry fest, loved by everyone. The ritual first pruning of vines is performed on this day – and there should be plenty of wine: for lots of production, for healthy farmers, for good quality of the vine. St. Valentine has been celebrated in this country for more than a decade now on the same date. No matter their different origin and meaning, the pagan and catholic fests are getting better and better together in the mind of the Bulgarians. Different festivals have been organized over the past years around February 14, combining love and wine in their slogans. Funny and colorful cards can be seen on the relation between the intoxicating drink and the feeling. To say nothing on the innovativeness of producers and tourist agencies, regarding the festive unification of both traditions. Some of these attempts are funny and successful, others do cross the edge of aesthetics. Pushing it all aside, we have selected for you nice folk songs, devoted to wine, love and sometimes to both.

Many folk songs tell the story of a young man, who drinks sparkling wine first and then jumps on his horse to get to the yard of his beloved one. However, not the girl, but her mother is the one who is waiting for him there…

The northern song in the rendition of Hristo Kosashki is a joyful story on a love meeting which never happened. The girl persuades her chosen one to come at night – and secretly, of course. She promises a chair under the chimney, but the lad jumps straight into the fire…

They also call Tryphon the Drinker. Many settlements, especially across the winemaking regions of Bulgaria, organize annual large and noisy fests. Winemakers and fans of folklore traditions repeat the rituals around the vines’ pruning that often resemble theatre shows. We should perhaps remind here that the Orthodox Feast of St. Martyr Tryphon is on February 1 in the new style. However, the folklore one is most often celebrated in the old style or on both dates. They say that according to the farmers’ calendar the old day is much more suitable and the tradition existed far before the transition from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Of course, the folklore fest in its whole magnificence is accompanied by many songs.

People’s sayings call the wine ‘joyhouse’ ‘headbreaker’ etc. The first glass is considered to bring health, the second – fun and the third – shame. There are also lyrics, devoted to excessive drinking, saying that ‘wine sells oxen and house’, if one drinks too much.

‘Pass on the glasses, my love – to drink and sing…’ sings Ivan Andonov in a contemporary piece, written in the folklore style by Nikolay Grigorov.