Serbian Orthodox Christmas Traditions

I wrote about our Christmas traditions at least couple of times already here on Hive but I really like sharing about it each year as it seems like there's always someone who comes across these post and finds out something new from it which makes me very happy!

Serbian Orthodox church uses Julian calendar therefore our holidays like Christmas and New Year are celebrated on different days. There are other Orthodox churches/countries that use the same calendar and celebrate on the same dates as we do.

On Christmas eve there are church services in all churches, cities and villages, where the log of oak tree is burned in front of the church. Services are usually held in the evening (at my place it's 7pm) and midnight as well. Another tradition is that early in the morning men of the family (women can be included too) go to the nearby forest and cut a branch from a young oak tree to bring it home, leave it outside during the day and bring it inside the home in the evening - it also should be burnt if the house has a stove or something similar to that or some people take it to the church service and burn it there. Nowadays, especially in the cities, oak tree branches can be bought nicely decorated which you can see on the photo below - this year we had both, the one from the forest and the one we bought.

Another Christmas Eve tradition is that we all should be fasting for that day - it is also the last day of the 6 week Christmas fast which some of my family members do each year. I did it a few times but it's been a couple of years since I stopped. However, for Christmas Eve it is a must for me. On this day there's usually dried fruit and nuts on the table (fresh fruit as well) as part of the tradition. I came from the city the day before so I could be with my family as we always spend holidays like Christmas and Easter together.

Last tradition I want to mention is bringing straw under the dining table where small gifts for children are hidden and they look for it. It's usually walnuts, small candy and a little bit of money. Straw is a symbol of birth of Jesus Christ as he was places in it after he was born and burning oak is a symbol of Joseph burning the tree to keep the cave warm.

On Christmas we have a breakfast together as a family. In the bread that is made for this day we put a (clean) coin and all the family members break the bread - whoever finds the coin is believed to have the most money during that year! :) This year my dad got it but we pretended to not see it and gave that piece of bread to my nephew and he was so happy! Other than family breakfast and lunch, there's nothing much we do for Christmas. Kids usually get some gifts, in my family we don't buy presents for each other. Third day of Christmas (this year on Sunday) the straw is brought outside the house and it's given to animals that can be fed with it or it's put under the trees for better growth which is something we do every year.

Even though I am not super religious, I love spending holidays with my family and enjoy all the traditions that were passed on to me by my parents. I guess that's the reason why I also love sharing it with you all and hopefully you found it interesting to see how we celebrate Christmas. I also want to mention that there might be some differences in different parts of Serbia and other Orthodox countries when it comes to tradition and customs but again, this is how me and my family celebrate it.

For the same calendar reasons, we also have what is called Serbian New Year. It is celebrated on the night between 13th and 14th of January. For the most part NYE is celebrated on 31st of December meaning that most cafes, clubs and other places organize parties on this day but there are also quite a bit that do the same for Serbian NY. This also means we usually have our Christmas/NY decoration at least until mid January. :D And for me this also means revisiting my goals and resolutions one more time, haha.