HARVEST PARADE
Folk Music and Folk dance Gala
1:00pm 12th September, 2009

On peasant farms, in contrast with other grape work, the harvest was communal work performed with family assistance. On single-crop farms, it was wagework, while prior to the middle of the 19th century, it was boon work on the estates. Until the start of the 20th century, the date of the harvest was traditionally defined and was connected to special days. Saint Mihály’s day (29 September – Great Plan and Eger area), Terézia’s day (15 October – Transylvania and a large part of Transdanubia), Orsolya’s day
(October 21 – the Lake Balaton and Kőszeg areas), Simon-Júdás’ day (28 October 28. – Tokaj-Hegyalja),  etc.
After setting the start date, they set to work with clearing the grape hills, opening the hill gates and making a lot of noise to drive evil away (by firing mortars, letting off guns, banging on drums, rattling on hoops and singing). In the 16th-17th centuries, for the time of the harvest, which was considered to be both a working day and a feast day, even jurisdiction was halted. The customs that used to differ by region and were multi-layered were made uniform, taking the estate patterns of the 18th-19th century as a basis. In their current form, these customs were made complete by a harvest procession and ball linked to the last day of the harvest (regulated by ministerial decree at the turn of the 20th century). Binding the farmer’s arms so they bend like grape, the preparation of the harvest wreath, watering the wreath-bearers, toasting the farmer, rewarding the best harvesters and offering things to those watching the procession were customs as recently as a few decades ago, in a number of wine regions.
With the help of traditional groups from wine regions and the representatives of wine orders, we will evoke this atmosphere for the visitors to the wine festival so that we can all show our respect to the once flourishing Buda wine region and to those working in the wine regions of today.