Traditions

Slaughter (Zabíjačka)

On of the annual (or semi-annual) traditions in Slovakia is something called zabíjačka or slaughter. It’s the closest thing we have to the American Thanksgiving. The difference is that instead of killing a turkey, we eat a pig.

The whole ritual starts in late March, when people living in a village buy a pig (prasa). The small 30lb piglet is then fattened all summer long, and finally slaughtered once it gets to a respectable 200lbs. Of course, nowadays many folks do not have the yard (nor the patience) to raise a pig. As such, it is quite common to purchase an already pre-fattened pig. And if the family is small, to purchase just a half or a quarter of the porker.

Cleaning the Pig

Unlike with the case of Thanksgiving, there is no set “slaughter” date. However, there are two main slaughter seasons: in November (about a month before Christmas) and then again before Easter. On the day of slaughter (or the delivery of the pig), the whole family, friends and neighbors get together. The dead pig is placed on a wooden board, and a heat lamp is used to burn off all the hair. Then hot water is poured all over the pig to wash it. Finally, the head is chopped off and the belly is cut open.

The internal organs are then removed, including the intestines (črevá). Typically one woman would wash the intestines while another went about preparing lunch. The intestines have to be washed thoroughly, since they are to be used later as casings for sausages and hurky. They are rinsed off some 20 times, and then left to soak in water containing dissolved lemon, chopped onions and black pepper. The internal organs are cooked up into a soup (polievka or vývar) that is served for lunch. Small kidney dumplings (pečeňové halušky, dumplings made out of kidney meat mixed with flour) are mixed into it. And for the main course, there is baked meat (pečené mäso).

Making Sausages

The real fun started after lunch: making of sausages. Men cut up the meat, grind it up, mix it with the various spices and filled the intestines. Meat from the lunch soup is used to make jaternica (rice sausage) and tlačenka (meaning “pressed meat” but known as head cheese). Other pig parts (including the feet and the tail) are turned into studenina and huspenina, dishes I have no desire to learn the recipe for. Finished sausages are left hanging from a stick overnight and then put in the smokehouse the following morning. Of course, all this involved plenty of drinking and merry good time. Dinner typically consisted of the sauerkraut soup (kapustnica) and more baked meat.

Smoking Meat

The smokehouse (udiareň) was a little wooden shed with a metal roof. It contained several horizontal sticks from which the meat could be hung. Several cinder blocks or bricks were placed on the bottom, and fire was started between them. A metal sheet with multiple holes punctured in it was placed over the bricks. The purpose of this sheet was to evenly distribute the smoke coming from the fire. Various types of wood were used, but my grandma used the plum (slivka) tree. The fire was kept low to produce a lot of smoke. The sausages were left in the udiareň for about 4 days.

While the sausages were smoking, the other meat was covered with salt and left to marinate in a wooden tub (korýtko). The juices that the meat let out were periodically poured again over the meat. Bacon (slanina) was treated the same way. It was also often seasoned with caraway. Meats were then smoked for some 5 or 6 days, until the bacon got yellow and the meat got golden. Smoked meat (údené mäso) was stored in a dark pantry (komora) where it would keep all winter long.

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St. Lucia Day

In Slovakia, December 13th is known as the Day of St. Lucia (Deň Svätej Lucie). This, along with with the St. Nicholas Day, is one of the witching days, stridžie dni. St. Lucia day is the most important of all of these, since, in the unreformed Julian calendar used prior to the modern Gregorian calendar, December 13th fell on the shortest day of the year. The lack of daylight made this day very favorable for the witches (strigy, striga singular) to come out! Another Slovak words for witch are bosorka and ježibaba.

About St. Lucia

Saint Lucia (or Lucy) came from Syracuse, Sicily. She was a Christian living during the Diocletianic Persecution, the largest and the final persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Her hand was given to a pagan, but she refused to marry him. According to the legend, her suitor fell in love with her beautiful eyes. To appease him, she poked her eyes out and sent them to her suitor on a plate. Virgin Marry then rewarded her by giving her a new, an even more beautiful pair of eyes.

Celebration in Slovakia

However, In Slovakia, St. Lucia is regarded as one of the greatest, strongest witches. When the guards threw her into a fire pit to burn her for witchery, they were unable to kill her and she continued to live. For this reason, on the eve of St. Lucia day, people all over Slovakia ate garlic (cesnak). Garlic protected people from evil, and many used it to smear a cross somewhere on their body. Crosses made using garlic, chalk or blessed salt were also placed on doors to the houses and the barns to keep witches from entering. On this day, it was also forbidden for women to visit neighbors. The woman could be a witch, and if not, it was believed that she would bring bad luck. Villages were also protected by the shepheards (pastieri) who walked from house to house, and blew a horn specially prepared for this occasion. People also constructed a small stool (lucijný stôlček). It was made without nails or metal fasteners and had a hole cut out. By looking through this hole, the maker would spot the witches.

St. Lucia day was also common for love magic. Various traditions existed. In one, girls looking for a mate would make a paper star with enough corners to last until Christmas. The names of available village lads were written into the corners, and a corner was pulled off randomly every evening and thrown into the fire. The name that remained indicated the suitor.

The most famous tradition associated with this day were the walks of Lucias, pochôdzky Luciek. Young girls dressed all in white (usually by wearing a large bed sheet and a white head scarf). They dusted their face with flour and sometimes even made fake teeth out of potatoes. One Lucy carried a bucket of dry wall (vápno) and a brush (štetka). Another carried a goose wing (husie krídlo) which she used to brush off spiderwebs. This cleaning was supposed to rid the house of witches.

Sources for this article:

• Vianoce na Slovensku by Zuzana Drugova
• Wikipedia
• My grandma

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St. Nicholas Day (Deň Sv. Mikuláša)

So what is this St. Nicholas day (Dec. 6th) anyway? And why did I cook the kapustnica soup for a dinner held on this day?

About St. Nicholas

Saint Nicholas (or Svätý Mikuláš in Slovak) was a pilgrim and later a bishop and a saint born in the year 270AD in the town of Myra, in the present-day Turkey. He became famous for his extended generosity, secret gift-giving and performing miracles for the poor and the unlucky. As such, he became the patron of humanitarian brotherhoods, sailors, unmarried women, tradesmen, students and so on. He is also the patron saint of Russia and Greece. Saint Nicholas Day celebrates the life of this philanthropist, who passed away on December 6th, 346AD.

Among his most famous good deeds was saving three girls from the life of prostitution. According to the legend, their dad, a poor man, could not afford the dowry. Since he didn’t want his daughters to remain unmarried, he forced them to work this way to earn some money. When St. Nicholas learned of this misgiving, he started throwing sacks of gold coins through the girls’ windows. After three days (or three years, depending on the source), the father realized the error of his ways (or had enough money saved up). There are many variations of this story. In some, St. Nicholas tosses the coins down the chimney. In others, the coins land in one of the girl’s stockings, which she left out to dry.

Does this sound bit like the story of the American Santa Claus? Well, it ought to! See, the Dutch name for St. Nicholas is Sinterklaas, which had morphed into Santa Claus. Santa even looks very much like St. Nick. The difference is that St. Nicholas is wears a bishop’s hat (rd to match his coat) and holds a long bishop stick capped with a spiral.

Celebration in Slovakia

Deň Svätého Mikuláša is very popular with kids in Slovakia. No wonder, they get presents on this day (but only if the behaved nicely)! On the eve of St. Nicholas day, Dec. 5th, kids leave out their shoes or boots on their windowsills. Then the next morning they find the shoes filled with little presents. When I was growing up, the presents were pieces of fruit: apples, nuts, pears, or if the kid was particularly nice, an orange (in the days before supermarkets, an orange was bit of a rarity in winter). Those who behaved badly would find a piece of coal.

Then the next day, in the evening, the older boys of the village would dress up as Sv. Mikuláš and his entourage: an angel (anjel) and a devil (čert). The boys dressed as angels would wear long white shirts, while the devils wore a long black coat, painted their faces black, and tied chains and bells around their waist. They would then visit families having little kids. The little ones first had to say a prayer (something funny and improvised) and then would receive more presents: dried fruit, candies, nuts and so on. And of course, those who misbehaved got their coal. In Bratislava, the devil supposedly gave out potatoes.

According to jankohrasko.sk, Mikuláš was also a day on which witches came out to play. This worried the villagers and as such, many measures would be taken to keep the witches out of the village. Men would not go to the woods, since this is where the witches were. In the Spiš region, an old broom would be hung in front the door of the barn. This would keep the witches out. Witches commonly frequented crossroads, where they would attack pedestrians, or would hide under bridges, where they muddied butter. The village boys, especially the shepherds, would try to run the witches out of the town by whistling, honking, ringing bells, or snapping whips.

So this brings me back to kapustnica. From what I’ve gathered so far, St. Nicholas day is the day when American Slovak associations hold their annual dinner. This makes sense. Most Americans don’t celebrate this day, and thus this frees up Christmas for the family get-togethers. So, St. Nicholas has become the day for Slovak-Americans to experience the traditions from the old country, and eat some tasty Slovak food! And the kids get to come out and get presents, from the old Saint Nick…

Sources for this article:

• Traditions of Village Machulince (in Slovak)
• Village Olsavica (in Slovak)
• Village Hnusta article (in Slovak)
• Saint Nicholas article on JankoHrasko.sk (in Slovak)
• St. Nicholas article on Presov Parish website (in Slovak)
• Traditions in Slovakia from St. Nicholas Center
• Wikipedia article on celebrations in Central Europe

How does your family celebrate the St. Nicholas day? I would love to hear about your traditions. Please leave a comment and share with others.

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