The traditions of the period between Christmas and the New Year belong to the most interesting and beautiful in the year. Before this time this period had been known as the celebration of the winter solstice. The 25th of December had been celebrated as the day when the sun was reborn again. But then, in the 4th century, the Church ordered that this day should be the day of Jesus Christ being born. In the middle ages, the day when Jesus had been born was also considered the first day of the New Year.
The preparation for the Christmas meal included the baking of Christmas wafers. This work was usually coordinated by a teacher, because the teacher would choose those children that would give the wafers out to the families in the village. The teacher chose the children that had been the most well behaved and hard working during the whole school year. For the children it was a big honor to be chosen to perform this task. The lucky children that were chosen would go from house to house to ask for the necessary ingredients to make the wafers. The wafers were baked from the day of St. Lucia up until Christmas, and then the children took them to every house in the village. Every family would get some Christmas wafers.
The children went from house to house with a song or rhyme that they had learnt by heart. In the Orava region, children used to say the following rhyme:
"We wish you for this celebration as much milk as there is water, a pot full of cream, butter like a flower, but please give me some coins at once!"
As a treat people then gave them some sweets and money into their baskets, similar to the Halloween tradition of today.
Following the old Roman traditions, where important holidays were celebrated for days at a time, so the Christmas holidays were celebrated from 24th until 27th of December. However, according to the Church calendar, the Christmas cycle is actually from 24th of December until 6th of January (the day of the Three Wise Men). All the ceremonies, superstitious practices and hardships throughout this period were mostly performed to positively influence the life, health and the nature. People foretold each other what the harvest was going to be like, which girl was going to get married, which woman was to have a baby or even who would die. The prophecies started to gain a ritual character, such as people putting on masks and going round the houses, where they danced, said wishes and sang Christmas carols.
Also, different games and plays with the motives from Christian legends were performed. The themes were mostly from the biblical story of baby Jesus being born, which at first had been used as part of the mass. However, from the 13th century these plays were forbidden to be played out in churches, and so from that time on they were only performed in the towns' squares.
Another important part of Christmas was also the preparation of the Christmas food. Its roots go back to the time when the solstice celebrations were connected with big parties, where mainly meat was eaten. The Church, therefore, ordered that people should fast on the 24th of December, in order to get rid of these celebrations. The Roman Catholics were allowed to eat fish, and they laid the meat onto the Christmas table and ate it only after midnight.
The fish was also a favorite dish because of their scales, which symbolized money and wealth. The fish scales were put either under the table cloth or plate. The Evangelical religion allowed people to eat meat, sausages and other meat products on Christmas Eve. For Catholics, the period of 30 days before Christmas was the period known as "Advent", where the meals were mostly prepared from cereals, peas and beans and other pulses, fruit, cabbage and often also from poppy seeds and garlic.
The traditional Christmas dinner was a soup, made mostly from sour cabbage, lentils, peas, beans and sometimes also from dried mushrooms. Other important ingredients for the Christmas food was fresh or dried fruit. People mostly consumed apples, nuts and dried plums.
On the first and second Christmas Days, people did not have to fast anymore and so they ate meat together with different side dishes, such as barley, beans, peas and other pulses and cabbage. Throughout the Christmas period there was always been plenty of alcoholic drinks, such as wine and homemade schnapps offered to the guests. According to tradition, just after midnight, the women started to prepare the Christmas breads and cakes, which had to be taken out of oven before sunrise, so that they were ready to be presented to the carol singers. The dough had to rise well, because low risen breads and cakes were considered as the omen of decline for that particular farmhouse. Also, if the crust on the baked bread was cracked it meant for married couples that their marriage would break up.
Apart from all the breads and cakes, which were baked in all sizes and shapes, "opekance" or "lokse" have also been prepared. Their preparation was based on baking long thin rolls, made from dough, which have afterwards been broken or cut into smaller pieces, poured over with a warm milk or sugar water and sprinkled with poppy seeds, and sometimes also poured over with honey. In the low Orava region, women used to pour the left over water from this onto the crossroads, in order to get rid of the bad luck from their house.
Another tradition at this time was the decoration of the Christmas table. It was considered to be a sacred place and everything that was on it, under it, next to it and also above it on Christmas Eve was supposed to gain a positive magic character. Under the table have usually been placed different working tools, which should have secured good working results in the next year for the farmer, but also strength and health to all who sat around the table. A chain has also been placed round the table legs, in order to strengthen the health and togetherness of the family.
On the Christmas table there was always some bread, and the crumbs from the bread and from other food were not allowed to be thrown away, but carefully saved. According to peoples' superstitions, the crumbs from the Christmas table had supernatural powers. The people would add the crumbs into the crops, used for the first seeding, or used them for healing and love potions.
To predict something at this time of year, the cutting of an apple or the breaking of nuts have been used. For example the apple was cut by a farmer and the pieces divided among the people sitting around the Christmas table. After everybody had had their piece, they could predict to themselves whether they were going to be healthy in the coming year by seeing whether the insides of the apple was healthy or worm-eaten.
Apart from that, people also believed that if a person got lost and suddenly thought of somebody with whom he sat by the Christmas table, this memory would find him on the right path home.
After the dinner everybody had their plans and programs ready for next few hours. Relatives visited each other and wished each other all the best, good health, happiness and contentment. One of the most famous carols in Slovakia came from Oravska Polhora:
"In this house a beautiful girl should pour us a wine. Into this house we wish you a swine and for your son a wealthy wife."
One of the thank you songs from Lokca village began with the following words:
"We should thank for these presents first to the man of this house then to his wife and also to their kind family."
In Zuberec village, one of the traditional rhymes was:
"Get up our shepherd, we have to go to the sheep-farm to milk the sheep and graze them. Why do we have to get up so early, we haven't slept enough yet, and also the day is not yet bright enough for us to milk."
One of the symbols of Christmas is also the Christmas tree. The shape as we know it today came only at the end of the 18th century. This tradition was spread from the Austrian and German towns, and it came to Slovakia in the 19th century, and into some parts only in the 20th century.
Up until then the houses were decorated with green branches or sticks symbolizing prosperity and protection. In some houses a farmer decorated all the doors with green pine branches. The pine-needles should have protected people and also all the domestic animals from demons and other bad powers. In other houses, people took the decorations down from the Christmas tree straight away after the Christmas dinner and stuck the tree into a manure, trying to transfer its negative energy into the ground.
In towns, the tree had an aesthetic function. At the beginning the branches or trees hang from the ceiling, above the Christmas table and only later they have been put into stands and decorated with ginger breads, nuts, apples and other goodies.
In the modern world we continue to keep these traditions alive in some form, while adding brand new traditions as well. Have a look at the Christmas Fancy Dress website for a good example of this.