Slovenia will celebrate St. Martin's Day this weekend, a holiday when, according to tradition, unfermented grape juice turns into wine. Observed with gatherings of families and friends, the holiday focuses on celebrating a successful wine harvest.
St. Martin's Day, which is also known as Martlemass, derives from the pre-Christian, pagan tradition of leaving food and wine on the table after a feast to celebrate the harvest.
The holiday is actually on Monday this year, but is celebrated at the nearest weekend out of convenience, especially as it involves drinking wine and gathering for a feast of roast goose.
The link to wine has grown from the belief that St. Martin, who is depicted on many Slovenian churches, performed the same feat as Jesus Christ by transforming water into wine, making him the patron saint of the celebrations of the fermenting of wine.
The eating of goose on the holiday stems from the legend that St. Martin hid among ducks in order to avoid having to take up the position of bishop, but that the animals gave him away, which is why they are now "punished" for this.
The holiday is particularly dear to Slovenians, who are extremely proud of their wine.
Indeed, there have even been a number of proposals in recent years to make St. Martin's a public holiday.
Slovenia is a traditional wine-making country, said Dušan Brejc, who heads the Slovenian Wine Corporation, a national institution promoting the country's wine heritage.
While there are some who would argue that the holiday is just another excuse to drink in a country which already consumes too much alcohol, Brejc vehemently rejects this view.
Wine culture in Slovenia is extremely well developed, Brejc told the STA, saying that stereotypes suggesting Slovenians are a nation of drunks are false.
"This is by all means not true, although it is true that we are perhaps somewhat more tolerant to drinking than some of the other nations and we do rank quite high in terms of the quantity of alcohol consumed."
There is no data on how much wine Slovenians drink, although official figures on alcohol consumption for 2000-2010 showed Slovenians consumed 10-13 litres of alcohol a year, a figure which Brejc said had receded in recent years.
The holiday is used by winemakers to stage tastings of new vintages, which they often spice up with cultural events and parties.
Large-scale events are scheduled to be stage in Ljubljana and Maribor, while smaller events are held in virtually all villages around Slovenia.
Several thousand people are expected to turn out to the traditional St. Martin's Festival in Maribor on Monday, which has the distinction of being the country's biggest celebration of the holiday.
Events held outside of the cities follow a more traditional spirit dedicated to celebrating the work put in during the harvest and preparations for the winter.
But regardless of the location, new wine will be at the heart of celebrations across Slovenia at the weekend and on Monday.
Slovenia has more than 15,000 hectares of vineyards, producing around 130,000 tonnes of grapes.
This year's vintage has been assessed to be of a fairly high quality by wine experts, although quantity is expected to be lower than in recent years, Brejc also told the STA.
"Technological advancements in Slovenian cellars have made it so far that it is difficult to speak of good and bad vintages," he said, adding that the swings in quality are now barely noticeable.
Source: TheSloveniaTimes
