Serbian Christmas traditions
While much of the Christian world celebrates the birth of Jesus on December 25, in Orthodox Serbia church bells peel across the country on January 7 to mark the beginning of the three-day festival.
After the calendar was reformed in the 16 century, the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as the Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Macedonia, Georgia and Ukraine, continued to calculate time according to Julian calendar.
While people now calculate time generally using the Gregorian calendar, religious holidays are still celebrated according to Julian one, two weeks later than the Catholic Church.
However, preparations for Christmas in Serbia start long before January 7. Many Orthodox Christians begin fasting 40 days before Christmas. Over that period, Serbs observing the fast eat no meat, dairy products or eggs.
Christmas in Serbia is a family holiday, and the three Sundays prior to Christmas are dedicated to celebrating members of the family. The third Sunday before the Christmas is dedicated to children, the second to mothers and the first to fathers.
This year, children, mothers and fathers will be honoured on December 22, December 29 and January 5 respectively.
On these days, family members receive gifts, but the presents they give come in the form of a ransom. On the morning of detinjci, adults tie their and their neighbours’ children either to one another or to a chair and the children have to give the adults a present in order to secure their release.
On the mornings of materice and oci, the children tie up their mothers or fathers in the same manner and only release them after getting their gifts.
While this tradition is mainly followed by families with small children, for many Serbs, the real Christmas celebration starts on Christmas Eve, January 6. On this day, even those who are not very religious will fast, avoiding meat, diary products and eggs.
It all starts with an oak
The oak tree is a crucial ingredient to a proper Serbian Christmas and on the morning of Christmas Eve, all Serbs go searching for a badnjak, an oak tree branch with golden leaves.
In the cities, these branches are sold on streets or markets, but in the countryside people still spend mornings in the woods and cut branches on their own.
These oak branches are placed in front of the threshold until that evening. Before the family dinner on Christmas Eve, the men bring badnjak straw and pecenica, a traditional pork dish served on Christmas day into the house.
In order to make a family home resemble the stable where Jesus was born, the men scatter the straw across the floor, while the mothers and children follow them, making clucking sounds.
The clucking in the Serbian tradition symbolises Christ’s wish to gather all people into one loving community, just as a hen gathers her chicks underneath her wings to keep them warm.
After the straw is scattered around the house, the family burns a part of the badnjak in the house if they have a wooden stove or fireplace, or, if need be, in the courtyard of the apartment block or back garden.
The fire from the badnjak symbolises the fire that the three shepherds brought to warm the stable where Jesus was born.
In Serbian Orthodox tradition, the fire at the same time warms the family with love, sincerity and harmony, while light from the fire dispels the darkness of ignorance and superstition.
The roots of the Serbian cult of the oak long predate the arrival of Christianity.
According to some, before they adopted the Christian faith, the Serbs worshipped a god called Badnja, and, converting to Christianity, burned effigies of their old god.
However, as they could not easily forget their beloved deity, they repeat the same act of farewell every year.
After the fire is lit, the family gathers around dinner table. Christmas Eve dinner is substantial, but restrictions on what may be consumed still apply, so it is usually based around fish, beans, potatoes and dried or fresh fruit.
In the Serbian tradition, family members leave home after dinner only to go to church.
In front of churches across the country, the badnjak is burned in a huge fire at midnight. Everyone bring an oak branch with them and throws it in the fire, making as many sparks fly as possible, as the sparks are believed to be a sign of a good luck in the year to come.
Welcoming lucky guest
Church bells at dawn mark the advent of Christmas Day. While some attend Church services, most Serbs stay at home, impatiently waiting for the first visitor, the polozajnik.
Instead of greeting each other with the usual “hello” or “good day”, Serbs use the traditional festive greeting of “Christ is born, happy Christmas” for all three days of Christmas. The appropriate response is “Truly, he is born.”
The polozajnik must enter the house with the right leg first as this will bring the family good luck in the year to come.
The tradition of the polozajnik symbolises the three wise men from the East who came to worship the baby Jesus, and many people arrange for someone they cherish to be the first across their doorstep.
On entering the home, the polozajnik lights up the rest of the badnjak and makes sparks fly. The more sparks from the fire, the richer, healthier and happier the family will be.
The polozajnik is then served with breakfast and when he – traditionally it should be a male – rises to leave, the family bestows presents on him in order to show how special he is to them.
Finding a lucky coin
The next step in the celebration is the Christmas Day lunch, which is the highlight of the day. Before the meal begins, the family breaks a special loaf of bread, the cesnica, a homemade loaf baked with a coin inside.
Although many families now order the loaf from the nearby bakery, the baker still makes it with an obligatory coin.
Before the meal starts, the family breaks the bread into pieces and each person start searching for a coin in his or her slice. Good luck for the coming year is granted to whoever finds the coin.
The hunt for the coin is followed by a prayer; only then can lunch can start. The meal is rich. Appetizers made of prsuta (smoked ham), cheese and pies, are followed by the main course of pecenica (roasted pork), sarma (cabbage stuffed with meat and rice) and several kinds of cake.
Preparing pecenica is also rooted in pre-Christian rituals. Traditionally, the pig should be slaughtered on the morning of Christmas Eve and roasted for the whole day over an open fire. In these modern times, the pork is more commonly prepared in an oven when the host has time.
There are two beliefs about what the family should do after the lunch. Some believe that every task a person begins on Christmas Day will be blessed, so they start the job that they intend to occupy them throughout the year.
On the other hand, there is also a belief that whatever a person does on Christmas, he or she will continue doing it throughout the year, so most Serbs believe it is best to spend the day doing the things they like most with people they love best.
The Christmas celebration does not end on January 7, as it is a three-day festival. On the second day, families visit their neighbours or relatives, while on the third day the straw is taken out of the house, and hung in bundles from fruit trees, to ensure a fertile year.