2025 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2025-01-23 10:18
Late tonight, the whole family will gather around the table to celebrate Christmas. The Christmas Eve table should be solemn.
The most important thing is that her dishes are an odd number - five, seven, nine. They must be lean. Most often for the table the hosts of the house prepare boiled beans stuffed with rice or beans peppers, vine or cabbage sarma, boiled wheat, pumpkin, oshav, garlic, honey, walnuts, wheat, fruits, ritual bread, pie, zelnik.
In different parts of the country the cake with luck is right either for the Christmas table or for the New Year. A coin is hidden in it and whoever falls for it will have the money in it for the whole next year.
Before going to sleep, the girls put a piece of ritual bread under their pillow to dream of the boy they are going to marry. From the dough of the cake are baked small cakes - cakes.
They are designed for carolers who will knock on Christmas to bless the family.
According to an old Bulgarian custom, the family should gather not around a table, but on straw, laid directly on the ground. When it's time for dinner, the oldest man incenses the table, the house, the cellar, the barn, the stables, the barns three times.
Then he and his wife lift the biggest loaf of bread to the ceiling and say, "So high is the wheat!" They break it by placing one half in front of the icon of the Mother of God and dividing the other half among all members of the family.
The straw from the ground is preserved and placed under the fruit trees or in the gardens and fields to give birth to more and to have a rich harvest. A shredded sack of wheat is placed on the straw, and a woven cloth is spread on top.
Everyone should try all the dishes on the table to go through the year. After dinner, everyone gets up at the same time and the table does not rise until the morning. This is done so that the deceased relatives, who visit their living brothers on Christmas Eve before Christmas, have something to eat.
There is another ancient rite, which, however, is no longer observed. Our ancestors put sand on the table on Christmas Eve to protect the home from evil forces.
In addition, it is a symbol of birth, of human existence. In some areas they put fertilizer - in addition to fertility, it also protects against death in the family. Salt also works.
It is believed that as Christmas Eve passes, so will life go all year round. That is why the whole family helps to perform the rituals and prepare the festive table. Tonight symbolizes both the generosity of our land and the eternal hope of fertility and progress.
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