Christmas Eve in Moravia

Christmas Eve in Wallachia (Valašsko)

In the poor hill country of Wallachia the housewife first cooked ščedračka — the Christmas Eve “everything” soup of peas, dried plums and pears, boletus mushrooms, sweet turnip and potatoes, “so that all of it would grow well”. Half was eaten; the other half was dried and mixed into the animals’ salt, a pinch at a time, all year.

Then came cabbage with bread, mushroom soup, buckwheat porridge with honey, semolina with gingerbread, vdolky and a burnt, spiced brandy. Everyone put the first spoonful of every dish into a separate bowl for the livestock. When the candle was lit, the maid carried in a sheaf of oats saved from the harvest and “wished luck” in a long rhymed blessing; the sheaf was spread on the table, with a loaf, garlic, onion, parsley and every kind of grain hidden under the cloth.

After supper the farmhand fetched a fir sprig with three tops from the forest; before dawn mass the maid dipped it in water drawn three times against the current and sprinkled the sleeping household and the animals.

Try it at home

Before you eat, put the first spoonful of each dish into a little bowl “for the animals” — then give it to the dog, the cat or the birds.

Christmas Eve in Wallachia (Valašsko)

More Christmas Eves nearby

Sources