Festive
Days in Wintertime
As it is true for many other nations, also the
festive days of the Slovenes from the Raba Region are
often based on church holidays. Furthermore, these festive days often emanated
either from weather and vegetation based periods or from agriculturally
important work phases. Any kind of work was forbidden on important festive
days, on less important festive days however, people were allowed to process
smaller work units. The dates of the various festive days and seasons are
subject to change.
The most important festive days in wintertime,
which lasts from Saint Andrew’s Day until Ash Wednesday, are Santa Claus
Day, Saint Lucian’s Day, Christmas, New Year’s Day, the Day of the
Three Magi (Three Kings) and Carnival Tuesday.
Instead of Santa Claus, some eerie figures (the
so-called mikulauške norci, bohoctje) passed by the houses of the Slovenes from the
Raba Region. On Santa Claus Day, elder bachelors and
married men used to wear rags, fur coats (which were worn invertedly)
and trousers. What is more, they used to tie a long chain around their waists
and covered their faces with a mask. They held an osier stake in their hands,
which had been lubricated with grime. On Santa Claus Day’s Eve they
sought out those houses, the inhabitants of which were busy working with
pumpkin seeds and picking feathers. These eerie figures rattled their chains,
which were bound around their waists, in order to scare the girls. Furthermore,
they used to hit the naughty children with the osier stake; however, they gave
walnuts and candy to well-behaved children.
On Saint Lucian’s Day (Dec 13) women were
not allowed to sew and to yarn. Men and women were only permitted to approach a
house when wearing a men’s hat, otherwise hens would not lay eggs the
following year. To prevent breed hens from overpopulation, people were not
allowed to sit on that very day. Furthermore, men had to collect kindling for
the fire and to beg for wealth for the following year by singing for the Lucians, who were 9-10 year old boys. The Lucians used to visit house after house in groups of three
singing their songs in order to wish hens, other animals and men a productive
year. They entered the kitchen carrying firewood or wisps, welcomed the
inhabitants kneeling and preached the Lord’s Prayer.
„Kokodák, kokodák…, aj vaši
kokouši teuko djájec znanséjo, kak po pouti
kaménje. Vaše iža aj teuko
pénes má, keuko zvejzde geste
na nébi, vaše krave aj teuko mlejka
dájo, keuko vodé geste v Rábi, vaš sin aj tášega má žrd, čér pa táše
veuke cecke, kak péč!“
“Kotkodaaa, kotkodaaa ...
(cackling) ... Your hens shall lay as many eggs as there are pebbles on the
streets, you shall have as much money as there are stars in the sky, your cows
shall produce as much milk as there is water in the River Raba,
and your sons shall have “things” as long as wooden bars (refers to
the ones used to attach the hay on the horse-drawn vehicle), and your girls
shall have breasts as big as a chimney.”
People used to make the Lucians
a present of eggs and money. The firewood (Slovenska Ves) was used to bake pretzels on December 24 (Christmas
Abstinence). In the other villages of the Slovene Raba
Region people used to burn the firewood on Christmas Day. On Saint
Lucian’s Day’s Eve the houses of the Slovene-speaking inhabitants
were sought out by women or girls who were covered in two or three white bed
sheets. They had white tights over their faces and wore white gloves. In their
hands they held a painter’s brush, a painter’s pot and a
painter’s can. When women entered the houses they intended to mark the
inhabitants with paint. Children had to pray; otherwise they would have been
taken by the Lucians. The women who were dressed in
white were given bread and liquor, which they drank with a straw.
On Saint Lucian’s Day, women were also
predicted their future husbands by a mystic aid. Furthermore, Saint
Lucian’s Day was an important day for weather forecast. The women from
the Slovene Raba Region made a so-called onion
calendar on this very day. Twelve onion skins were strewn with salt. Each onion
skin symbolised a month of the year. The onion skin on which the salt melted
characterised a month with much rain.
What is more, men used to craft the
Lucian’s chair on Saint Lucian’s Day. This chair had to be
constructed until Christmas Eve. When the men stood on that very chair in the
moment of God’s blessing on Christmas Eve, they could tell who was a
witch in the village. Those women who turned their heads away during God’s
blessing were considered witches. Needless to say the name “Lucia”
/ “Licija” was not very popular in the
Slovene Raba Region. Women were often teased by using
this name: (“Stára Licija
– Gray Lucia”).
The Slovenes from the Raba
Region imitated the tradition of the crèche of the Hungarians. In Števanovci, people used to wear masks as well (similar
to the crèche tradition of the Hungarians in
Z néba je prišeu
dóli k vam ángeu,
pastirje, pastirje!
V Betlehem naj bi
šli ino vídli,
dejtece, dejtece.
The Slovenes from the Raba
Region spent December 24 fasting. They ate bean soup, Swabian
pockets, which were filled with pumpkin seeds, steamed dried plums, pears and
apples for lunch. Under the table they heated kernel, juniper and oak branches
on a plough blade. The doors and windows were decorated with periwinkle (Sakalovci). On this day women were not allowed to visit
anyone, since they would have caused bad luck. In order to protect themselves
from bad luck the male members of the neighbouring families wished each other a
“Merry Christmas” already in the early morning.
New Year’s Greetings take place on early
New Year’s morning and are characterised by the recitation of verses,
castigation and by aspersing with water: In Gornji Senik men and women asperse girls and women with fir
branches, which have been dipped in cold water. In the other Slovene villages
in the Raba Region girls and women are being
“hit” with plaited scourges: With these New Year’s Greetings
good health and wealth for the New Year is being wished.
„Zdravi bojte, friški
bojte, v eton nouvon let! Dosta krüja, dosta vina, fse za
volé! Düšno zveličanje pa največ!”
“Stay healthy
and fresh in the New Year! Much bread, wine and wealth! But
above all salvation!”
On January 6, the Day of the Three Magi, the
Slovenes from the Raba Region bring water to church
for consecration: As the case may be, the dead who has been laid out at home,
was aspersed with this water. The “Three Magi” used to go from
house to house in order to collect donation. The Day of the Three Magi is also
the beginning of carnival. Those who went from door to door singing for charity
attached a dress made of red, white and green crepe paper, which they had bound
with a cord on their workaday clothes. On their heads they wore crowns made of
paper, which were decorated with symbols such as the sun, the moon and the
stars and, sometimes, with a ribbon made of paper. Furthermore, they carried a
staff, which had a star on its tip. On the doorstep they sang a Slovene song
about the Three Magi, which dates back to the 16th century and is
still exists in prayer books. After the song they entered the houses and asked
for gifts (money), which they also received. This scholar custom, the so-called
“Course of The Three Magi” derives from the 16th century
and was adopted both by the Slovenes and the Hungarians from the Raba Region.
The participants, who went from door to door on
Christmas Eve and on the Day of the Three Magi, were originally primarily elder
men. On New Year’s Day however, the inhabitants were mainly congratulated
by young chaps. This custom, which consists in going from house to house
wishing the inhabitants all the best, was absorbed mainly by children after the
First World War. Above all boys used to follow this very custom, except for Sakalovci. On Saint Lucian’s Day this tradition was
lived only by children at all times.
Carnival is the time between the Day of the
Three Magi and Carnival Tuesday. On the final day of carnival, Carnival
Tuesday, the Slovenes used to dress up. The Slovenes from
Translated from German into English: Joël Gerber
The German text is based on: Mukics
Mária, „A Magyarországi Szlovének“;
Press Publica, (2003)