Bulgaria - Event

To honour the patron saint of wine, Bulgaria has celebrated St Trifon's Day since Thracian times, when wine makers used to salute Saint Trifon with a ritualistic vine-pruning ceremony. Nowadays, the same pruning ceremony takes place across the country.

Women bake bread and roast chicken in preparation for a post-pruning feast. The festival involves, as you would imagine, a lot of eating and even more drinking. In fact, the lucky man deemed to have grown the most grapes that year is crowned King, and he and his subjects are ordered to get drunk to ensure a plentiful harvest the following year.