Wine, Romance and Folk Songs

Wine enters through the mouth,
Love, the eyes.
I raise the glass to my mouth,
I look at you,
I sigh. ― W.B. Yeats

It's that time of year again. February is the month of Valentine's Day in many countries around the world.  In Bulgaria, there's the celebration of Trifon Zerezan, the patron saint of wine. Today's post features songs about love and wine from Macedonia, Serbia, and Bulgaria.

The Macedonian folk song, Dafino Vino is about a woman whose boyfriend had his coat stolen by the haidouks (rebels) while he was sleeping. They sold the coat at a drinking establishment for wine and rakia (brandy). What really makes this song special is the accompaniment, a tamburitza orchestra, which adds a Croatian accent to the music.



You can read more about the performer, Elena Risteska, by clicking this link.  She is a Macedonian singer and songwriter and quite versatile. She performs both pop and folk songs, and has competed in the Eurovision song contest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Risteska

The next video features a dance song from Serbia, Savila se Bela Loza Vinova. It's about two people in love who chase each around the vineyard. The dance (starts at 0:21) is a favorite with kids. It's very easy to do and there's lots of running!



Here wine combines with romance in the Bulgarian song Kruchmaritse performed by Daniel Spasov. If you are a regular reader of The Alien Diaries you will recognize the song; the setting is different, however. This time the flirtation takes place in a bar on a riverboat, and the people are dressed in early 20th century costumes.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Blessed Wine, Cursed Drinking, A Look at St. Trifon, Patron Saint of Vintners

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/02/blessed-wine-cursed-drinking-look-at-st.html

Boozing it Up in the Balkans  (Bring on the wine and rakia!)

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/04/boozing-it-up-in-balkans-via-song-and.html

Here Comes the Brass Band: Modern Bulgarian Folk Songs With Daniel Spasov (Kruchmaritse, on land this time;  a romantic riverboat excursion on the Danube, and some wild folk dancing at the Baba Vida fortress in Vidin)

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/11/here-comes-brass-band-modern-bulgarian.html


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.