The Name day of
everyone named Trifon, Trifonka, Lozan. Triphon also means ‘lover of merriment
and pleasure’.
Ritual table: boiled chicken, baked flat sausages, omelette, fresh bread,
cheese cake.
On February 1st the Orthodox Church celebrates and
honours Saint Triphon – one of the most glorified saint-healers, who lived in
the 3rd century AD. The 17 year-old Triphon healed the daughter of the Roman
Emperor Gordian and in doing so, gained great glory and respect. The feast is
also called "the Noseless", as a folk legend says that the Virgin Mary cursed
Triphon to cut his nose because he made fun of her. On this day people elect
"Tsar Triphon", and in spirits they carry him home from the vineyards.
The
Trifon Zarezan
(Bulgarian Wine Celebration) on the 1st and
14th February.
Every man goes to his own vineyard, and performs the main ritual – the
trimming of the grape vines, by first clipping three sprigs from the best
vine, then pouring wine over the cuts, and pronouncing a blessing so that
there may be rich harvest of grapes. Before starting the festivities,
however, the men choose one of them, who is well-off, a good and lucky
landowner, and then they make a wreath from vine twigs, and, putting it on his
head, they crown him “Tzar Trifon”. After the ritual, all the men go back to
the village and around the houses. On that day the Orthodox Church pays
homage to the celebrated martyr Saint Trifon the Pruner. It is a name day to people
named Trifon, Trifonka, Lozan, and Lozinka.
Trifon Zarezan, the Bulgarian holiday of vine-growers and wine-makers is so
popular that it is celebrated both in accordance with the old and the new
holiday calendar, i.e. at present it is celebrated on February 1st, but some
people prefer to repeat it on February 14.
The festivities on the Day of Trifon Zarezan mark the dividing line between the
ending winter and the nearing spring. The transition between the two seasons
stirs the most fierce conflict in the annual natural cycle - it is the
transition between the dead winter season and the invigorating powers of the
following seasons. That is why, namely in this period, rituals are performed
to strengthen and ensure a triumph of vitality and fruitfulness. Through the
rituals, man applies all means for
encouraging nature. Women knead special
round loafs - a symbol of the fertile field, and generously hand them out to
neighbours and relatives. The men go to the fruit-trees which did not bear
fruit in the winter and threaten them, ritually, they will hew them off. Then
another participant in the ritual promises that in the next spring the trees
will once again be fruitful and so, they should be spared. During the
festivities, the man in the home picks up 3 live coals from the hearth. They
symbolise the invigorating power of the fire and the sun. Looking at the
coals, people try to foretell which crops will yield the most abundant harvest
in the new season.
The most triumphant for the natural forces ritual is called Trifon Zarezan
because all vine-growers perform the first pruning of the vineyards. In this,
the men are accompanied by the women, the young and the kids. They all go
together to their piece of land to show their respect to it and inspire it for
a new life with the first agricultural ritual during the new year, with
festive songs and dances, with a ritual table laid among the vineyards. The
first pruned vine sticks will be wreathed into a crown for the best
vine-grower in the village. He will be proclaimed the "Vine King" of the year.
The men carry the vine king on their hands or are harnessed in the cart and
drive him around. Everyone wants to be blessed by him and treat him with their
wine. The more wine is poured on that day, the more generous the next harvest
will be.
There is an interesting story about Saint Trifon, the patron of the 3-day
holiday cycle. He, just like the villagers, once had a vineyard and would
prune it. One day, Virgin Mary passed by. Trifon laughed at her and so she
condemned him to cut his nose with the pruning shears. What she said came true
and from then on people would call Trifon the Snub-nosed. He is also nicknamed
Trifon the Drunkard - he probably loved his vineyards and the wine they
produced. He is most popular as Trifon Zarezan or Trifon the Pruner because it
is on his day that the pruning starts and it is one of the most important jobs
to do. Even the icons present Saint Zarezan a pruning shear in hand showing that
he is honoured as a patron of vine-yards and they are one of the main symbols
of fertility in the Bulgarian folklore culture.
In recent years, Trifon has come to share his day with another saint...
Saint
Valentine.
Folklore
Traditionally,
Bulgarians drink red wine. It is the ancient mythological symbol of fertility,
blood and life.
That is why wine is a compulsory element in all traditional
rituals in this country. You cannot cense a festive table in Bulgaria unless
you have red wine. It is especially on Trifon Zarezan, or Saint Trifon’s Day,
however when wine flows like a river. The more abundant it is, the more fruit
there will be during the year. The ritual guests to every home, such as
carol-singers and mummers, are treated generously with wine too. Good wine
should be full-blooded, frothy, thick and mellow.
Wine used to be given even to children, at a very young age, so
that they would grow up strong, healthy and energetic. There is a song that
sounds like an echo of that ritual which sings of a girl who decided to prove
her superiority and show to all that “she is a maid above all maids, a bride
above all brides, and braver than the bravest.” Dressed like a man, she
managed to climb high into the mountains where shepherds are and asked them to
treat her to “mellow wine that has been boiled nine times on end”, as well as
to a whole roasted lamb. After she dealt with the wine and the abundant food,
the girl laughed at the shepherds for letting her fool them.
Evidence of the magical powers of wine is provided by a number of rituals in
Bulgarian folklore. When bachelors get together in a brotherhood of a
non-blood relationship, they strengthen their bond with wine, which will link
them for life. Wine can break a nymph’s spell, if someone finds himself in a
nymph’s meadow, the folk belief tells. When the inhabitants of a house want to
honour their guardian spirit, they leave a mug of wine for him in the corner
of a room or in the attic. The faith in wine’s magical power to grant living
strength is at the basis of the old ritual of pouring wine into the
foundations of a house, when its construction begins.
Another Version
- In the traditional calendar, Saint Triphon’s Day is a holiday of the
vine-growers, tavern-keepers and gardeners, who are protected by the Healer
Saint Trifon. Early in the morning that very day, the housewife in the house
kneads and bakes ritual bread, which in some parts of Bulgaria is even
decorated with a vine-leaf. After that she boils a chicken, roasts it and then
fills a wine vessel with wine. The housewife places all this in a new or clean
woollen bag, together with a bottle of sanctified water from the church, which
bag she hands to her husband.
With the bag over his shoulder, the lord of the house joins his
fellow village men. They all have headed towards the vineyards. Once all men
have reached their vineyards they perform the main and most important ritual
for the day – the cutting of the vines. They face the rising sun, make the
sign of the cross over themselves and cut some sticks from one or three vines
either from the centre of the garden or from its corners, they then pour wine
over
the cut vines and whisper a blessing: “The more wine drops, the more grapes”.
The men sprinkle the vines with holy water for fertility and to protect them
from hailstorms and other natural disasters. They collect the vine sticks they
have cut and make wreaths out of them. Some put these wreaths over their caps,
shoulders or wine vessels, others take them home and place them in front of
the house icon of the Saint.
After the vine cutting ritual, the men
get together and lay a festive table right there, amongst the vineyards. In
some regions of Bulgaria the men choose a ”King of the Vines” or a “Triphon”
before the merriment begins. Every man can become a king if he wants to, he
only needs to have been a good and prosperous vineyard owner all through the
past year. The king offers a wine vessel full of wine and whispers a blessing:
“To each vine a quarter of bushel, from each vine - a tub”.
The
other men carry the king to the village. Upon their return in the village they
visit all neighbouring houses. The hosts first give the king wine to drink and
then treat the others in the party. The hosts pour what is left from the wine
in the wine vessel over Triphon, with the blessing: “May we have a rich
harvest, may the wine pour in abundance”. The holiday ends with a feast in the
house of the king, who treats his guests with wine. The festive rituality of
Triphon’s Day includes numerous magic activities and practices. According to
the traditional calendar, Wolf Days start on Saint Triphon’s Day.
Another Version
In the classical folk calendar of the Bulgarians the first spring festival is
Trifon Zarezan, the day of vine-growers, gardeners and pub-keepers – successor
of the days dedicated to the Thracian god of merry-making and wine Dionysus.
According to some students of Thracian culture, Dionysus is the creator of the
world and the patron of birth.
For that reason his symbol, the wine, is also moist and warm. The day is also
called “the
Noseless”.
A legend tells how Virgin Mary pronounced a curse on Triphon to cut his nose
because he made fun of her. And the nose is an old symbol of masculinity. On
this day very early in the morning the woman of the house makes a ritual or
“trifonski” bread, slaughters a black hen and cooks it. When the sun rises
everybody starts off, with songs and music, for the vineyards.
Once there each owner digs with the sickle around the biggest vine,
pours red wine three times round the roots and feeds the roots with ritual
bread at four points, corresponding to the four cardinal points. He spreads
ashes about and then he cuts three sticks from the vine. He twines them into a
wreath, ties it with a red thread, makes the sign of the cross three times and
pronounces the blessing: “May this year be prosperous! Let’s gather a full
bushel from each vine, let’s pour a bucket of wine out of every stump so that
it flows over the threshold!” They eat – there, among the vines.
The man who has produced the
largest quantities of wine during the year becomes king, blessed by the king
of the preceding year. Then, singing and dancing, driving the king in an open
cart (in some regions carried on the arms of two men) so that “his legs do not
touch the ground’, as a messenger of God, they all start for the king’s house
where festivities last through the night.
The first day of the
(Trifuntsi)
in honour of the wolves.
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PEACE HAVENS of BULGARIA
