It is this attachment that is depicted in the FESTIVAL STARE TRTE many products displayed and sold at the Or FESTIVAL OF THE OLD VINE. OLD VINE FESTIVAL In addition to A Celebration of the Slovenian Culture the singing and dancing at the FESTIVAL, the sights and smells of Slovenian The FESTIVAL OF THE OLD VINE truly cuisine fill reflects the rich culture of Slovenia and shares Glavni Trg. this culture with its neighboring countries of Hanging Hungary, Italy, Austria and Croatia. The nine cauldrons filled day program includes International Organic with traditional Slovenian soups, stews and Farm Day, Wine and Food Routes of sausages are sampled by visitor along with a neighboring countries, The Old Vine for variety of wines from the Stajerska region of children, Gala day on the river Drava and Slovenia. The cooking highlight during the Raftsman’s Baptism, along with concerts and Festival is the European journalists popular music events. championship in cooking game goulash. Goulash is a type of stew which contains nature’s plants and “game animal meat.” The Slovenian culture is steeped in a rich tradition of festivals, celebrations, and If one knew nothing about Slovenian holidays. This rich tradition reflects, not cuisine, the FESTIVAL OF THE OLD only the cycle of seasons, but the diversity VINE features the traditional favorites of FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: of its people and their surroundings. The FESTIVAL OF THE OLD VINE is one of (dumplings), jota (vegetable soup) and rich the most important festivals in Slovenia and deserts such as gibanica. Gibanica is a WWW.TWINCITIESSLOVENIANS. COM is directly linked to native traditions of wine layered dessert of lemon, walnuts, apples, making, cuisine, organic farming, song, poppy seeds along with two layers of creme dance, and beekeeping. cheese. This dessert is a natural treasure of the Prekmurje region which is located in the The festival traces its roots back centuries far eastern corner of Slovenia bordering ago when in 1335 the wine trade in the then Hungary. Hapsburg Empire was concentrated in Maribor in present day Slovenia. Festivals and Fairs have been popular for many centuries in the Slovenian culture. The Festival is held in Maribor the last two weeks of September when it honors this 400 year old grape vine. (oldest living grape vine in the world) The most scion is planted in the Bled Castle in Slovenia culture values beekeeping as a balance in important itself. Receiving a bottle of this noble wine nature. The pollination of wild and cultivated event of the “modra kavcina” were such people as Milan plants is by far the greatest contribution to food festival is Kucan, first President of Slovenia; Bill Clinton, production. the grape former president of the United States and gathering Japanese emperor Akihito. There are more than 22,000 different species ceremony of organisms living in Slovenia thanks to the which BEE KEEPING pollination by the Carniolan grey bee. From an occurs on economic perspective, the value of the the final day of the Festival. The mayor of Part of the FESTIVAL OF THE OLD VINE is pollination amounts to 30x value of honey bee Maribor, considered the “ceremonial” the celebration of Bee Keeping. Beekeeping products. During the Festival there are different master of the old vine, determines that the goes back to the days when people still had no types of honey, beeswax candles, honey liquor grapes are ripe and he orders the grape refined sugar; there was hardly a farm in and a variety of products related to apothecary harvest to begin. Grape gathers from Slovenia that did not keep bees in addition to (medical applications of honey bee). The bee “Sampetra” near Maribor collect, weigh, other domestic animals. Slovenia is the products are not medicines but they can serve measure the sugar content, grind, press, pour homeland of the Carniolan grey bee or as an important and beneficial part of medical into containers and hand over to the care of “Kranjska Sivka”. It is known for being hard treatment and as dietary supplements. the Meranovo Estate. working, gentle, and having an excellent Bees in By the Old Vine at the end of the grape sense of orientation. Slovenia harvest, the last wooden tub of grapes This bee race has spent were kept in symbolically meets with the first tub of hundreds of years low wooden manure, as ”we have to return to the Old adapting to Slovenia’s hives which Vine that which with the grapes we took climate and forage were stacked away.” The youngest grape gatherer puts a conditions. close together in several long rows. These were grape on a vine shoot so that the vine will Kranjska Sivka known as Carniolan hives. A little wooden drink its own juice. house was built for them in a protected part of Slovenia is the only EU member state that has the orchard, where all the bee colonies were Grafts of the Old Vine have been given to protected its indigenous bee race, which means kept under the same roof, protected from snow different dignitaries from around the world. no other bee race is allowed to be bred here. and cold in the winter and scorching heat in the Pope John Paul II was given one of the first summer. grafts and it is bearing fruit in Rome. There is a saying that it is “Slovenian” to be a beekeeper. In fact there Today they have become one of Slovenia’s Other are four bee keepers for identifying features just like churches on the scions have every thousand hilltops and hay racks around the villages. In th been Slovenians, which is a the mid-18 century a unique folk art emerged planted in world record. Even in what is now Slovenia - painted beehive such places though there is no direct fronts. Simple bee houses became true art as the connection of the honey galleries depicting historical events, Bible Wine bee pollinating grapes stories and everyday village life. Museum of Paris and in neighboring (grapes tend to be wind countries surrounding Slovenia. This year’s pollinated), the Slovenian Probably no other nation in the world is as emotionally attached to bees as the Slovenians.