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    Vinotok, one of the favorite festivals of my home-town, Crested Butte, Colorado, hails its name from the old mining town’s Slavic / Eastern European Heritage…meaning “fall wine festival”. A merry harvest celebration indeed! Vinotok is a ritual shindig whose spirit can be traced back to it’s European roots in the Middle Ages, honoring the Autumn Equinox, September 19th, marking a time of balance between day and night and the cyclic change of seasons.  Crested Butte’s Vinotok is a special kind of reincarnated pagan folk festival that has taken on a distinctively “Crested Butte flavor".  If you live in Colorado and you’ve never been, I would definitely recommend checking it out, because it’s a verifiable barrel of monkeys, as they say.  Festivities span the greater part of a week and include, but are not limited to, town potlucks, street theater, story telling workshops, wine tastings, beer fests, concerts, and general community bonding/merry making.  Marcy Telander, one of the Festival’s founders, a diva story teller herself,  talks about the significance of story telling and our connection to this beautiful and essential oral tradition. The below quote is taken from an excerpt from Joy Harper’s article in the Gazette: 
     "Unlike most storytelling festivals, Vinotok does not include professional storytellers from outside the community"… "This is the only fully local storytellers’ event in the country. It is not a showcase for entertainers,” says Marcie Telander, a Crested Butte resident and “Godmother” of the event. “The people of Crested Butte are not tellers of legend — there’s overwhelming humility and an honor for truth. Throughout history, the tales of the old ways have given meaning to people’s lives. Narrative is the perfect mirror of feeling,” Telander says. “ (*1)
     The Grump, a 20 foot tall sculpture puppet, is a special and symbolic part of the Vinotok festivities. Every year, in light of the celebration, the school children of the community craft decorated "grump" boxes in which they stuff their grumps, any frustrations they want to release, usually written on notebook paper and sometimes colorfully illustrated. The grump boxes are then used as stuffing for the large community Grump... adults are welcome to contribute.
     Evidence of the adult communities tall tale telling skills (...say that phrase 10 times fast) can be witnessed at The Eldo, a favorite local watering hole, for the annual and greatly anticipated Liars Night. Prizes are awarded the cleverest of story tellers and the identity of the annual Green Man is announced.  The Green Man is chosen by women, and it is his duty during the span of the festival to uphold a merry and mystical countenance symbolizing the virility and vitality in respect of the male aspect in nature. 
     The climax of the weeks events takes place on September 19th, the Autumn Equinox.  As tradition holds, when evening approaches, a cast of medievally clad maidens in flowing skirts, bustiers and flowered garlands (think hippie Renaissance festival) accompanied by equally decked out torch and flag-bearing men rome the streets, going bar to bar "mumming" out the rest of the costumed festival goers in a pide-piper-esque fashion.  ( How's that for a run-on sentence? :) ) Accompanied by flutes, horns, drums and such, the mummers sing harvest songs and dance their way to the main stage (in the middle of the main street) for the street theater production.  The drama stars the Grump, of course, along with the Green Man and the Harvest Mother, the Earth Dragon and Sir Hapless.  The Harvest Mother is traditionally played by a ripely pregnant woman.  The Earth Dragon's character represents nature, and Sir Hapless is a stand in for the imbalances of technology obsessed modern-man.  The Grump is put on trial as a sacrificial scape-goat, and is always found guilty.  
     After the Grump is sentenced, a parade forms and proceeds down the Main Street (Elk Avenue) ending at the 4-way stop where a massive bonfire has been prepared and safely roped off by the fire department.  Here the Grump is light a-fire and burned in effigy for the town's peoples sins... That was bad joke, but in it's essence, that is what Vinotok symbolizes to a lot of Crested Buttian: a wiping of the slate, a time to burn our grumps or let go of our yearnings for a couple more weeks of ever-fleeting Summer and embrace the coming of another, hopefully epic and bountifully snowy, winter season.  
    "Fire celebrations are part of the most ancient of traditions, especially in places that have cold winters and short days.  It also gives participants a chance to see the faces of their neighbors around the bonfire," Telander says. "These celebrations shed light on moving into winter and tell the sun not to forget us."  (*2)

(*1) excerpt taken from Joy Harper's article in the Gazette from August 20th, 2010 (link below) www.gazette.com

(*2)  excerpt taken from Lysa Allman's article on Examiner.com from September 7th, 2009 (link info below)www.examiner.com