CHRISTMAS 2004

Motif: Christmas wheat On entering the home of a Croatian Roman Catholic at Christmas time, you will find in the middle of the table, or in some other prominent, pride of place spot a bowl with just cropped up wheat, sown round St.Lucia´s day. The thick light-green grass blades, that like new grass rise up from the dish at the pre-Christmas time, lay the soul open, because they herald the spring with their breath of new, young life. Spring will come after the cold winter in which the whole of the nature is dying, taking a rest after the hard work, when the nature has given its crop to the man – the farmer: the one who tills the soil and cultivates it working hard. For Croats cereals, many sorts of corn, have from times immemorial been that yield whose lack would make their everyday life inconceivable. It will make their daily bread because if there is no bread hunger will knock on the door. Among all the corn sorts the noblest and most highly esteemed one is wheat that is used to make white bread and is also often used to make ritual cakes, loaves, among others also Christmas unleavened flat cakes. Wheat has an important place among the Christmas customs. It has been blessed by human labour, particularly in the past when the reapers used to do the gathering of corn manually, using the sickle to collect this valuable God´s gift. In the north-eastern part of Croatia, in the fertile region of Slavonia, the reapers used to mark the end of harvest time in a particularly touching way. After having gathered the last sheaf of corn, they would put it up vertically like a livng being and then kneel round it praying “Our Father”, and then they would take the sheaf and thrust it heavenwards, crying out “Your blessing, Father”. Then they would bring this sheaf from the cornfield into the host´s house, singing some ritual songs, and he would, thanking the reapers for their toil, bring it into the house and look after it carefully, because this was God´s blessing for the house and all the inmates. From this sheaf corn grains would be collected that would be then mixed with the seed intended for the next years sowing. But even the harsh hay, the corn blades also held the blessing. This is why it was put under the tablecloth on the laid out Christmas table, and bundles of hay would be laid under the table to the great joy of the children who would untiredly roll in it, thus receiving God´s blessing and protection. On Epiphany, the last day of Christmas time, the hay would be taken from the house into the orchards and laid in small portions round each fruit tree. The Christmas customs that represent the turn from the old into the new year have retained many of the activities that were supposed to secure better living conditions, accompanied, of course, by a good yield of crops. This is the reason Croats give their great love to the land, the soil, and express their patriotism to it by linking their wishes, appeals and hopes to the tricoloured red-white-blue flag. In the church, they cheer with all their might and sing loudly the Christmas carrol that sounds like a hymn: “The King of heaven was born unto us – by Our Lady, the Virgin Mary – Rejoice on this new year – and pray to our young King!”