Across sprawling vine-covered hills, snipping sounds of pruning shears intermingle with cheerful twittering of diligent pickers as the autumn harvest season sweeps across all of Hungary’s 22 wine regions. The collection of ripe grapes is the culmination of an entire year of hard cultivation work, marking the beginning of a new stage in the wine-producing cycle – an occasion surrounded by important traditions celebrated nationwide for centuries with spirited outdoor festivals. Join us as we walk through the history of Magyar harvest culture, and find out where to join the festivities.
Spanning from September through November, the grape-harvesting season has always been a significant economic and social happening throughout Hungary’s vine-covered regions, as families and friends join forces to gather the ripened crops of yearlong cultivation, and then celebrate with season-closing jamborees that feature music, dancing, feasting, and drinking until well after the sun dips below the horizon.
To illustrate the importance of this event back in the day, in certain territories of Hungary during the 18th and 19th centuries, the local authorities went so far as to define the exact harvest time determined by weather conditions and regional geography, picking distinct dates for this season that could vary considerably. During harvest time, government functions were suspended, and active soldiers were granted permission to return home for the feast.
The harvest usually kicked off with high-pitched calls to action flooding the area, like the powerful tones of ringing church bells or the cracking sounds of gunshots fired amid the ordinarily serene vineyards. Soon afterwards, local women grabbed sharp-edged curved knives and perfectly pointed pruning shears to clip bunches from the vine, filling robust wicker baskets and wooden vessels with the juicy berries. Ensuring that the pickers put their hearts and souls into the labor-intensive activity, a foreman oversaw the whole procedure, checking harvested vines by hacking the leaves with vigorous swings to see if any grape bunches were left attached to the stems.
When the containers were overflowing with ripe fruit, the pickers called out for the container-transporting men to load the fresh produce into a large basket that he carried on his back, before he transferring the berries to the wine-press house, where the load was dropped into a massive vat for human-powered crushing and squeezing. Due to the lack of grape grinding tools in the early days, barefoot women jumped into large grape-filled containers to stomp the freshly picked fruits amid laughter and cheers, before the mashed produce was loaded in the press to extract their heavenly nectar.
When all of the crops were collected, the workers lined up for an immense procession towards the vineyard owner’s home, enlivening the journey by chanting rhymed verses about the landlord’s graciousness (or stinginess, in certain cases). If the landowner earned the respect of his workers, he was granted a vine wreath adorned with sweet grape bunches and soft ribbons, and in return he provided the workers with traditional meals, including freshly baked scones, hot goulash soup, soft-roasted pork, and hearty stuffed cabbage – along with aromatic wines and pálinka (traditional Magyar-made fruit-based brandy) – to feed the hardworking folks. The harvest usually ended with a lavish ball attended by locals wearing traditional costumes celebrating into the night.
Such high-spirited balls and harvest-related festivals are still very much part of the Hungarian wine culture, including various traditions carried through from antiquity to the present day, including the harvest processions with the masculine character of “Baksus” – a marionette figure representing the bibulous Greek god Bacchus – sitting on top of a wooden wine barrel in red apparel.
There are many different ways to get a taste of the harvest atmosphere, even here within Budapest’s boundaries, and even though most of us can’t take part in an actual crop-gathering feast amid our urban locales, during the autumn months the city boasts an assortment of wine festivals where visitors can sample diverse libations, devour local specialties, and feel the spirit of the wine-loving community.
One of the most prestigious wine events of the country is the Budapest Wine Festival during September 9-13, stretching over the Buda Castle terraces before picture-perfect panoramas over the Chain Bridge, the Parliament House, and beyond. Here visitors can sample selected nectars from all of the Hungarian wine regions along with an assortment of international wines. A few weeks later, the wine country of Etyek (found just 30 kilometers west of Budapest) hosts the “Etyeki Borangoló” festival on October 3rd, where local cellars open their doors to treat the public to fine wines and traditional eats.
To get a closer view of the rural heritage surrounding the Hungarian grape-gathering season, anyone can visit one of the many harvest festivals happening across the country, where centuries-old traditions meet modern-day celebrations with classic costumes and harvest processions. During September 25-27, Balatonfüred hosts its annual harvest festival on the shore of Lake Balaton about 130 kilometers southwest of Budapest, with joyful folk music, traditional dance performances, and horse-drawn carriages stirring up the three-day jamboree. If you can venture further out of Budapest, travel northeast of the Hungarian capital to the renowned Tokaj region during October 2-4 and join Tokaj-Hegyalja Harvest Days, featuring wine knights, local delights, and vivid concerts at the foot of Tokaj Hill.
And even those who are spending just a few days in Budapest can get a sense of this fruitful feeling by visiting downtown’s Great Market Hall to admire fresh harvest-season produce at the stalls of varied vendors – including juicy grapes – amid the sweet fragrance of freshly cut produce filling the air.
