The wine harvest in Trakiya started with ancient rituals

This year the wine harvest in the region of Trakiya once again started with splendid folklore rituals. Wine-growers, vine-growers and wine admirers met near Starosel to take a sip of the first sips of the grape elixir Vintage 2008.
“Welcome! Make Yourself at home!”, the Mayor of Starosel Ivan Zhutev invited the guests, as he admitted that after the opening of the wine complex the village became a preferred tourist destination for many Bulgarians and foreigners. The region, once inhabited by the ancient Thracians, has been recently visited by diplomats as well. The hosts are glad that the guests of high standing are left with a good impression of the wine, the history and the local people, and therefore – from Bulgaria.
As the tradition demands, led by Tryphon Zarezan, the old-village grandmothers brought from the vines the first grape baskets – muskat and merlot – by signing old songs they learnt from their grandmothers. At the entrance there were pretty maidens dressed up in beautiful Thracian costumes welcoming the guests with a loaf and honey, and sticking vine leaves and crane’s bill on them. The grandmothers put the grape clusters into an old stone tub of over 4 thousand years, while saying prayers for the wine to be once again this year light, delicious and fragrant to please people of all ages.
The beauty Alena – a 20-year old student in management in London, was chosen to be the good luck of the grape of the new vintage. The girl was carried on hands to the wine tub by the young men. There they performed the ritual washing of her legs and then, in accordance with an old tradition, they let her inside the wine tub to stamp upon the first grape clusters. The beauty kept crushing the grape until the first grape juice started running along the tub furrow.
The owner of “Starosel” – Angel Angelov, was the first to take the first sips and after welcoming the guests he shared his expectations of good wine, for the summer was hot and dry.
After all participants and guests joined into the dance and witnessed the sanctification of the boiled mutton, it was the time for all to go to the rotunda – the basement for the preservation of the wine casks and for acting out Thracian rituals in a beautiful hall. The young people from Hisar greeted all people present with the mini performance “Orpheus and Eurydice”, and the god of wine Dionysus treated them with wine.
The restaurant tables taken outdoors patiently “waited” for all ritual to finish so that the people might sit around them to drink and taste the delicious dishes of Master Dancho.
The old-village grandmothers who created jolly atmosphere for all guests, kept signing and dancing to keep the holiday mood until the end. They were joined by the young boys and girls from “Hisar” Folklore Group that urged all people present to join the dancing around the pool.