Gap Week: Valentine's Vineyard
16 Feb 2025 - VelikTzar
Words: Very Few. Time: A couple shorts' worth
Hello! Grievous illness has brought me low. It’s the third time in a month and a half. Normally I’d ask you to excuse the lack of actual content, but we’re past that in our relationship, I think. But in any case, guilt has brought me back here, even as I struggle, feverish, struggling to breathe. Now, so much time in the past 6 weeks (half the time, really), spent “recovering” in bed has affected my “research” quite negatively (though that was never going anywhere, let’s be honest). But being sick this week has also meant that I couldn’t indulge in my yearly tradition of drinking a bottle of wine by myself on the 14th. Well, I could, but I try to not drink and smoke when I am sick - I wish to recover faster so that I can go back to these two favorite pastimes.
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Ah, Valentine’s Day. That incredible holiday, that reminds you that you’ll be alone forever. All the flowers everywhere, the happy couples holding hands. All the Valentine’s day sales that are just… everywhere. But the 14th of February isn’t just St. Valentine’s Day.
It happens to be St. Tryphon’s Day as well.
The daughter of the Roman Emperor Gordian III (225-244) was possessed by a demon, and noone could help her. The only person who could save her - Tryphon, who was grazing ducks at the time. He was brought to the emperor’s daughter, frees her (and a black dog?) from the vile spirit.
Later, during the reign of Emperor Decius(249-251), Tryphon was taken to Nicaea by the provincial prefect, Aquilinus, because our man Tryphon refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods. He then gets tortured and dies, all the while showing incredible, unshackable faith in our Lord and Saviour. \
A Serbian icon of Saint Tryphon
He is a protector of vineyards and winemakers, of gardens and the city of Kotor (in Montenegro).
In a different, less canonical story is the uncle of Jesus Christ (oh, yes). He meets his sister, Mary, mother of Jesus, on the road one day, apparently disrespects her in some fashion whilst being slightly inebriated, and then she in turn curses him, and warns him not to work, lest he cut his nose. He goes to work on the vineyard and gets his nose cut off.
This legend is widespread throughout Greece, Macedonia and Bulgaria.
Thus, in these regions, the 14th of February is accompanied by celebrations, as that is when the vineyards are cut. There’d be drinking and dancing and the like. I’m sure it’s all mentioned in that Guardian article I linked earlier.
You might be thinking - drinking and dancing? This sure does remind me of a certain ancient Greek god. I concur, this all sounds positively Dionysian. And he is quite close to home there (both to Greece, and to Bulgaria, as allegedly Dionysus comes from Thrace). But Christian holidays borrowing from previous pagan holidays is nothing new. Just look at St. Valentine’s and Lupercalia. Though naked men running through the streets whipping people with goat hides would make the day far more entertaining, in my opinion.
***
I’m sorry. This could and should have been longer. But I’m too tired to even be properly bitter about being alone. Hopefully next week I’ll have recovered, and be full of vigour, and I’ll do everything right, I’ll be insanely productive and finally win. I’m sure it’ll happen this time.
See you, dear Reader.