St. Ignatius day (Ignajden - 20 December)
Type: Local holiday
Location: Bulgaria »
Website: http://www.pravoslavieto.com/life/12.20_sv_Ignati_Bogonosec.htm
In Bulgarian: Игнажден (20 Декември) »
On December 20 the Bulgarian Orthodox church celebrates the day of St. Ignatius the God-bearer, disciple of the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. This day marks the beginning of the folk New Year.
Bulgarian tradition: On the evening before, the woman of the house prepares the table for Ignazhden - dishes without meat and a big bun which is divided into pieces in the morning by the "crawler" (the first guest to the house). Then she takes with a spoon some of the boiled wheat and corn (chinichka), tastes some of it, and the rest she throws over the fire for the chicken to fly freely and the wheat to grow high. While throwing she says: "As much coal in the oven so much prosperity during the year!" and others say "Amen!”. And they know that as the holiday table is rich the hosts will be twice as rich. Then the woman of the house makes a circle of a man’s sash in the yard and within it she feeds the chicken so that they don’t go to other people’s yards. She keeps the hens to lay eggs in their own nest for in the mythology of the old Bulgarians the egg as a symbol of the world and the new, blessed world of the home must remain in the house.
On this day people are careful not to take anything out of the house. Everybody must bring things in so that the year is "full". It is very well if everybody has a coin in his pocet.
Ignajden is nameday of Ignat, Plamen, Ognyan, Plamena, etc (from the Latin, the word means "fire").
Bulgarian tradition: On the evening before, the woman of the house prepares the table for Ignazhden - dishes without meat and a big bun which is divided into pieces in the morning by the "crawler" (the first guest to the house). Then she takes with a spoon some of the boiled wheat and corn (chinichka), tastes some of it, and the rest she throws over the fire for the chicken to fly freely and the wheat to grow high. While throwing she says: "As much coal in the oven so much prosperity during the year!" and others say "Amen!”. And they know that as the holiday table is rich the hosts will be twice as rich. Then the woman of the house makes a circle of a man’s sash in the yard and within it she feeds the chicken so that they don’t go to other people’s yards. She keeps the hens to lay eggs in their own nest for in the mythology of the old Bulgarians the egg as a symbol of the world and the new, blessed world of the home must remain in the house.
On this day people are careful not to take anything out of the house. Everybody must bring things in so that the year is "full". It is very well if everybody has a coin in his pocet.
Ignajden is nameday of Ignat, Plamen, Ognyan, Plamena, etc (from the Latin, the word means "fire").
