On Sunday, I joined a pensioner's club in the next village over, Айдемир, for their celebration. It was super traditional, with the old cultural outfits and everything! They started the festivities by cutting a grape vine in someone's garden and pouring wine and holy water over the cut. They said a few words and we all migrated inside to start the party. We were given food and lots of homemade wine, while a group of grandmothers sang traditional songs and danced traditional dances.I have a friend visiting and all the grandmothers adored her. They dressed her up and sang to her, much to her embarrassment! It was great!Then they wanted to dress me up in the traditional garb... No extra clothes for me, though, so the one guy there stripped down and let me borrow his clothes for a song. Ha!
They had me dress up and do a little dance - and then they told me that Alena and I were married. Ha!
They made, what I assume, were some traditional blessings for us and then wished us back next year with a baby! Then they entrusted us to be the judges of the homemade wine contest! Mmmm!The whole thing was very interesting, but it was all symbolic. It was a group of retired folks trying to keep their culture and traditions alive. Unfortunately, the only young people around to witness it were Alena and myself.That's probably why we got so much attention. I guess if you counted age in terms of spirit rather than in years, this group would have rivaled me for being young! It was a lot fun, and I loved it all, but the next day we got a chance to see the real deal!
The next day, Данчо Манчо took us to the same village, where we met up with a group of working men. They made up something of a vineyard cooperative and took us out into their fields. We cut vines off of the plants and made crowns and necklaces, and then poured out some wine to wish for a fruitful coming season.
The day was cold and windy, and we stood in the middle of a vineyard that stretched on as far as we could see. Our shoes were caked with mud and everyone's nose was dripping - but it didn't matter because today was the day to celebrate their profession! How many people celebrate their profession?! They were super serious about the whole thing; I mean, it is their livelihood and all, but it was their pride that was inspiring. There were two profound speeches before any of the cutting even began that seemed to create a very solemn moment. That, however, was followed by smiles and activity to make sure everyone had a grape vine crown.
When we got back to the processing facility, we gathered in a basement where there were tables set up among old, 300-liter wine barrels! It was a very, very cool atmosphere! I'm really starting to develop an appreciation of wine. Not only the drinking of it, I mean, I'm enjoying it in completely different ways. The old latin saying, "in vino veritas," only told half of the story - so here's an Andrewism that I hold true for telling the rest: In wine there is joy!
A couple of big oak barrels were labeled 'Merlot 1991' but as I understood it, they were all empty because of the fall of communism. It sounded odd at first, and the connection was not immediately transparent... but someone did tell me that back in communist times, when everyone was equal, there were a lot more people who worked in grape fields and made wine. They explained that the problem now, is that with capitalism, there has been an element of competition injected into the society which makes folks want "keep up with the Ivanovs." The result is that many people abandoned the low-profit (albeit high-happiness) trade of wine making to pursue other things. This would certainly explain a dying tradition, and it better explains the efforts of the pensioner's club to keep those traditions alive. How effective they will be, though, remains to be seen. Maybe what they need is some young folks to get interested in these traditions, to get married and start families, and to pass on the tradition as well as they pass on a bottle of wine!
