Traditions around the day of St. Lucia (Luca napja)
Before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar the day of winter solstice was estimated to be around December 13. This is the darkest period of the year, which can be called the Hungarian Halloween, since people think that evil spirits come back around this time.
December 13 is also the day of St. Lucia or Luca, as the Hungarians call her. Her name comes from the Latin word “lux”, meaning light. For this reason people often call her “light bringing Lucia”. She is the patron of the blind and visually impaired, however farmers, craftspeople, pillow makers and seamstresses also pray to her as she used to work with sharp tools.
St. Lucia came from one of the most influential aristocratic families of Syracuse in Sicily. After she was praying at the tomb of St. Agatha for her mother in Catania, her mother became healthy. Meanwhile an angel appeared in the dream of St. Lucia, offering her Christianity.
From this day on, Lucia claimed herself to be the fiancée of Jesus and did not want to become the wife of a mortal man any more. Her deserted fiancé did not want to accept this and reported the girl at Prince Pascasius because of her conversion. The prince tried to humiliate the girl by forcing her to idolatry and prostitution, however God protected her. After that the prince ordered people to pour oil and tar on Lucia and to burn her. He could not harm Lucia this time eitherthough. Eventually, he ordered her throat to be slit. The girl did not die until finishing her final prayer.
Most popular traditions in Hungary on this day
Luca’s chair
People start making the originally pentagon-shaped chair on this day. They have to use nine different types of wood (blackthorn, juniper, maple, pear tree, dogwood, white fir, acacia, turkey oak, rosewood). The chair has to be ready by December 24. The maker of the chair usually takes it to the midnight mass on December 24 and sits or stands on it. The chair helps him discover witches in the community, however once he notices them, he has to start running home so that the witches will not catch him.
Planting wheat and Luca’s calendar
On this day the lady of the house plants wheat into a small bowl. She has to water the wheat until Christmas Day. The higher the wheat grows and the greener it becomes, the better the crops will be for the coming year. People usually put candles into the bowl of wheat as well.
On the twelve days starting with December 13 people try to predict the weather for the following year. Each day represents the months of the next year. The weather on the first day represents how the weather would be like during the first month of the coming year, the second day represents the second month, etc. This tradition is called Luca’s calendar.
“Kotyolás”
The purpose of kotyolás is to help people have better crops and more fertile animals. The “kotyoló” people go from house to house saying rhymes in connection with fertility and better crops. The “kotyoló” people are usually boys who carry some stolen hay or some twigs with them. They kneel on the hay while saying their rhymes. Then the housekeeper’s wife puts this hay under the chicken. The residents of the house have to offer a small donation or a gift as payment for the kotyolás. In case the boys do not receive any payment, they curse the housekeepers, saying “You shall have only one hatchling, but it shall become blind.”
According to another tradition the housekeeper’s wife sprinkles water or throws corn onto the boys and then has her chicken and geese eat and drink the falling grains and drops. The first line of the fertility-rhyme in Hungarian says “Luca, Luca kitty-kotty”. This is where the name kotyolás comes from.
Fortune telling
Unmarried girls usually write the names of twelve men onto separate little pieces of paper, which then they fold and put into a bowl, hat or small basket. Each day they pick a piece of paper and throw it into the fire. The man whose name remains on the last piece of paper will become the girl’s husband.
Another tradition of fortune telling is baking pogácsa. People usually put a coin into some, and a feather on the top of others. Those, who find the pogácsa with the coin will be prosperous the next year. If the feather scorches during baking, it means that the person, who baked that pogácsa would die soon.
Prohibition of work for women on this day
As women have to make sure that the chicken lay plenty of eggs the following year, they have to help them by sitting a lot during this day. Besides that, other types of work, including spinning, sewing, washing, canning, baking bread are prohibited as well. In case a woman does any sewing work this day, she sews up the bottom of the chicken too and they will not be able to lay eggs any more. Those women who Luca catches working this day may turn to stone.
Source:
Henrietta Takács – Körkép.sk
Az én konyhám
Cover by Wikimedia Commons
