You must be thinking of St. Valentine’s day, but it is not about it. At last not all about it.
In my lands, there is another festival on that day, called Trifon Zarezan, the patron of vineyards and wine. The legend about his nickname “Zarezan” says, he cut his nose off while he was pruning his vineyards. That happened, because when he was pruning his vineyard, the Virgin Mary passed by. Trifon laughed at her that she did not know who the father of her child was, so she condemned him to cut his nose with his pruning shears. I guess he was just sufficiently stuffed with the end product of the vineyard because of obvious existence reasons (February, cold and snow, you really need internal flame to keep you running).
Trifon Zarezan comes from an ancient pagan tradition, similar to the Dionysus celebrations, originating from the Thracian times, and Thracians were reputable wine connoisseurs. It was a lads party – only men were allowed to attend the vineyards and celebrate on that day. After the ritual of pruning the vines, the men would choose a “King of the Vines” and move the party to his place. Ones gathered around the table (I suspect gals had been just cooking and serving slaves on that day), and — now be very careful — men have had the obligation to get very drunk, as that was the way to secure abundant harvest for the coming year.
Showing once a year affection based on a herd principle doesn’t convince me much, but seems lots of people enjoy the gooey tradition of Valentine’s day. So having an opportunity to substitute it with something more reasonable seems to me very appealing. Besides, I firmly believe, with enough wine you can make even the hardest love flourish.
Wine is a necessary foundation for love, so I guess at the end there is a strong connection between those two traditions.
It doesn’t matter in favour of which one of the two festivals you rise your glass tonight, the important thing is that the glass is full of glittering red wine, and your heart is filled with joy.
And don’t forget to enable
#REPEAT cheers{
#UNTIL while (!completely_wasted) { cheers!() }