How Christmas was celebrated in the Boljevac county at the beginning of the 20th century

From Christmas to Vodice, the people greet each other with the words: "Christ is born!" To which the answer is: "Let the truth be born!"

A female shepherd goes and fetches water from the well. When the water is brought, the hostess brings out a glass of wine, into which she puts a few dogwood buds and pours the water, then gives it to each member of the family to taste a little. They do this so that each calf is as healthy as dogwood and red as wine.

This morning, the housewife makes sure to feed the poultry before sunrise. He carries grain in one glove, then in the yard he makes a circle out of his cloths, there he hands out the grain and gathers the poultry. They make a circle so that the hens do not lay eggs outside the house.

When the host goes out to the field for the first time this morning, he breaks off a twig from his native plum and, entering the house, says: "Merry Christmas!" Christ is born!" The housewife sprinkles him with grain and replies: "He is truly born! Thank you!" The host approached the fire and started conjuring it with that twig, saying: "How many sparks, so many sheep, goats, kids, chickens, ears of wheat, male children, calves, raw pigs, black goats, and most of all life and health!" After that, the host raised that plum branch high, saying: "This much so that wheat, barley, hemp and everything else will grow!" so he put her in chains.

This morning, the delivery man is also coming to the house. They call the one who is considered lucky, i.e., a layman. the one for whom it is believed that every job is done by him, be it a man or a woman, whether a child, male or female. When the beggar comes to the house, the hostess sprinkles him with grain, and first she lets him light the fire, and he blesses her with magic: "So many sparks, so many sheep, money, so many children, kids, chickens, calves, foals, pigs pigs and black goats!" When he says that, the layman raises a branch of native plum, which he brought with him, and says: "This much, let the wheat, barley, hemp and everything else grow!" so he stuck a twig in the chains. Many do not even call the polažajni, but the first person who comes to the house that morning, they consider the polažajni, and let him conjure up the fire. In some villages, they call the schoolboy on Christmas Day and he takes them off, not on Christmas Day. When the person performing the spell, they place a pillow for him in the middle of the house and he sits down and crosses his legs. The housekeeper girds him with a curtain and he is so dangerous that he lays down a little, so that the hens can lay their eggs better. While he is sitting like that, the hostess serves him coffee and brandy. On Christmas, they do not give walnuts to the bearer, because they are not taken in the hands during the three days of Christmas. When the pilgrim goes, they present him with a curtain, with which he was surrounded, and in addition they give him socks or gloves, or two or three groschis of a pair.

Before the sun has risen, the host takes some of the straw that is spread around the house in a basket, puts the thicker end of the Christmas tree on the fire to light it up well, and then goes to the plum orchard or vineyard with the straw and the Christmas tree. Arriving there on Christmas Day, he set fire to the straw, stood under several plum trees and said to each one: "Give fruit, plum, or I will burn you!" After that, he goes under the apples and says: "Bear, apple, or I will burn you!" The host usually goes around all kinds of fruit that he has. When he is done, he hangs the Christmas tree and the basket on a plum tree, and returns to the house. The basket and Christmas tree will remain there.

If the owner has bees, he goes to the beehives before the sun sets, sets fire to a rag and goes around each beehive. This is done so that the mice do not eat the bees.

Some again make a doll out of wool, and leave it in the middle of the beehive. They also make several wreaths from wool, and place one such wreath on top of each beehive. They do this so that they would not be afraid of swarms during swarming.

The housewife's main concern, in addition to other tasks, is to prepare lunch. For lunch, he usually serves sauerkraut with trout or bacon, unwraps the skins and makes gibanica. When that's done, knead the garlic from the proja flour. They put pieces of dogwood wood, pieces of chatma wood from the house, pieces of yoke wood, white and black beans, corn kernels, pumpkin seeds and pieces of beehive wood into the garlic. If the cooperative is larger, and there are more households than there are things that are mixed in the garlic, then the housewife puts another grain of beans or corn in the garlic, so that there are as many things in the garlic as there are households in the house. All this is kneaded into a dough and kneaded with garlic.

This morning, the younger ones look to finish their work, and especially to visit and feed the cattle. It's already time for lunch. When everyone is cleansed, the housewife or one of the female servants is placed on the sack, down on the ground, to have lunch, just like on Christmas Eve. On the first and second day, Božica has lunch and dinner like this. Spoons and forks, which were taken out on Christmas Day, are now brought into the house. When the sovra is set, the salt shaker, the censer with the embers, the wax candle, the Christmas cake and the wine glass are placed first. All the chelads stand in a semicircle around the sofre. The host makes the sign of the cross and lights a candle, then sticks it to the salt shaker on the east side. After that, he puts a few grains of tannin in the censer, then he burns the candle three times, goes around to the right three times and burns all the cheliads and sovara, and then leaves the censer, and takes the Christmas cake in his left hand and a knife in his right hand, and crosses it first with the knife, then then cut in the form of a cross saying: "Father, Son and Holy Spirit." Amen!” After that, he took a glass of wine and poured it over the cake again in the form of a cross, saying: "Father, Son and Holy Spirit." Amen! Let the vats of wine and the baskets of grain overflow!" Put the wine that spills over the cake back into the glass, because it should not fall on the ground. The host with one male head from the house, the oldest after him, turns the cake three times, saying each time: "Lord, have mercy!" and they break it. The host kisses his half saying: "Christ in our midst!" The other one kissed his half of the cake, saying: "It is and to be". Now turn the cake so that the host's half comes to the person with whom he is cutting the cake, and this half comes back to the host, and the host kisses the half that he is holding, saying again: "Christ in our midst!" and he kisses half of it towards himself and answers: "It is and yes it will be!" After that, they exchange halves again, and for the third time each one kisses his half, always repeating: "Christ in our midst!" and "Yes and to be!" When they finished, both of them raised both halves in the air, saying: "May the wheat grow this much and may every grain bear fruit!" After that, both halves of the cake are placed on the table, but in such a way that they cross each other. Crossing the cake, the host says: "This is how to cross the stacks in the field!" After this, the host took a glass of wine, poured it over the cake, crossed himself three times, saying: "Help, God, and today's dance, Holy Christmas, be a help to us!" and he toasted the one with whom he was cutting the cake, sipped a little wine, and handed the glass to the other, and the latter, receiving the glass, made the sign of the cross, saying: "Help, God, and today's dance, Holy Christmas, be a help to us!" and after sipping a little wine, he returned the glass to the host. The host gives each member of the family, in order of seniority, a little taste of the wine from the same glass. When they are done, they sit down in order of seniority to have lunch.

It is customary on Christmas to slaughter the female herds first, then the male ones, and they do this so that their female cattle, especially the female lambs, would suffer. When everyone is seated, the host takes the garlic in his hands, cuts it into as many pieces as there are in the house with a knife, and gives each one a piece. Everyone seeks their happiness in garlic. Whoever finds a dogwood means that his health will serve him well that year, whoever finds a yoke, his oxen will suffer, whoever finds a piece of chatma will be a householder, whoever finds a pumpkin seed, his pigs will suffer, whoever finds a grain of white beans will suffer his sheep will suffer, and whoever finds a black one, his goats will suffer, whoever finds a piece of a hive, his bees will suffer, and whoever finds a grain of corn, his grain will suffer. After this comes lunch. For lunch, first the right shoulder is cut from the Christmas tree, then the left, and then in order. They leave the head for Basil's Day. During lunch, while the candle is burning, they watch which way the candle flame goes, and they believe that the wind will blow in the coming year. When the lunch is over, they dip the candle in a glass of wine and put it out. They then give that wine to the children to drink, so that they don't have a sore throat. The candle is kept as a medicine for cattle or people, especially when a pimple appears. When that disease strikes the cattle, then with that candle they set fire to gunpowder, with which they smoke the wound.

Sovra is not raised on Christmas, nor is the garbage thrown out.

On the first day of Christmas, it is customary not to leave the house, especially not to visit guests. He spends every day singing and rejoicing at his house, only the youth who go to play after lunch.

As the first day of Christmas is celebrated, so is the second day, except that on the second day guests go and visit.

On the third day of Christmas, early in the morning, all the straw that was spread around the house is collected, then left and used for nests, in which the hens will lay their eggs. The people believe that it is not appropriate to throw that straw into the garbage. Some spread this straw on fruit trees, between the branches, and especially on plums, in order to produce better fruit. When the straw is collected, then the house is cleaned and benches and chairs are brought in, which were brought out on Christmas Day.

READ: Christmas garlic - how to make it?

These songs are sung about Christmas: