Christmas Eve (Badnidan, Badniak)
Description:
On this day before sunrise, the head of the family and his sons or grandchildren (necessarily one of the younger ones) with a shotgun in front of the house announce a trip to the forest for the “bad man”. The family members who remained in the house at dawn start a fire and start roasting a piglet that was specially fattened for Christmas - a "cookie", women prepare Christmas cake, cakes and other dishes.
Badnyak is a log of felled young oak, which every Serbian family must have in their home during the Christmas holidays. The field is chosen of such size and weight that the head of the family himself, on his shoulders, could bring it into the house. According to tradition, it should burn in the family hearth during all three days of the holiday. As soon as the owner of the house finds a suitable oak, he turns to the east, is baptized three times, remembering the Lord God, his Glory (the saint - the patron of the family) and tomorrow's holiday, greets the badnyak, and then three blows cut down the tree (the first blow is applied from the east, the last usually from the west, so that the tree falls east on the shoulders of the owner). If a tree cannot be cut down with three strokes, it is torn from the base without the help of an axe. In this case, its lower part is called a beard.
Flew from the tree chips are called “Iver”, one such chip must be brought from the forest to the mistress of the house. Sometimes Iver tries to catch even in the air. It is placed either between troughs, so that the cream on milk is year-round greasy, or between hives to protect against evil, or in water, which is then considered healing. Brought from the forest badnyak, sometimes dressed in a shirt, until the evening left leaning against the outer east side of the house. Symbolically, the Badniak personifies the log that the shepherds brought with them as a gift to the righteous Joseph, so that he lit it in the cold manger where the Savior was born. Badniak is also a symbol of the cross on which Christ was crucified. Throughout the day, the house is decorated festively.
In the evening before dinner, the owner brings the baddnyak into the house with straw, the hostess sprinkles it with wheat, and the owner puts it to the fire. First, they kiss and smear with honey, then start burning.
Like many other Christian customs, the burning of badniak has pagan roots. According to one theory, the badnyak personifies a deity who, when burned, gains new life. In other words, they call dead families. In the third, a badnyak is a kind of fire protection. In any case, Badniak is associated with the solar cycle and is part of the cult of the sun. From the burning of the oak tree, a new sun was born.