30th November, St. Andrew's day, "halushky," a national pasta dish, were cooked, into which unmarried girls put slips of paper of the names of young men
6th December, St. Nicholas day, the traditional day for Slovaks for exchanging gifts
13th December, St. Lucia's day, when the powers of darkness were said to do more harm than usual to people's health and property. In the evening women dressed up in fancy dress and ritually chased the evil spirits out of their houses.
24th DecemberThe Slovak words for Christmas Eve are literally "bountiful eve" and the bounty of this sacred evening lies in the wide range of festive dishes, of which there had to be twelve different kinds. Even today many Slovak families must have on the Christmas table garlic to ward off demons, honey, wafers, nuts, cooked peas or French beans, dried fruit, and the main dish, cabbage soup with mushrooms and "opekance," small pieces of dough with poppy seed and honey. At the beginning of this century, fish has become the traditional meat served during Christmas Eve astheir scales are said to bring wealth into the house in the Catholic portion of the population while the Lutherans would add smoked meats and sausage to their cabbage soup. Christmas holidays are also very rich in Slovak pastries and baked goods that are prepared over many evenings during the month of December.
Christmas Eve was the turning point between the declining and increasing light of the sun. This feast is even now linked in the minds of Slovak people with a large number of traditions. For example, whatever one did on that day, one would do all year round. Nothing could be lent, because all the family's property would then be "lent out".
The ritual lighting of the fire used to be a widespread practice observed by all Europeans. The Christmas fire was considered sacred and later it was replaced by burning of candles as a memory of near ones no longer with us. These candles were eventually incorporated into the richly decorated Christmas trees, which arrived in Slovakia from Germany and Austria in the latter half of 18th century, but did not expand to all of Slovakia until the first quarter of this century. The trees are traditionally decorated in addition to the candles with fruits, usually apples, home-made Christmas decorations made fromwood or wooden carvings, baked goods made with honey in the form of Angels and other religious symbols and candies. The Christmas tree was kept until 6th of January, Feast of the Three Kings, at which time the kids were finally allowed to have the candies and other sweets taken from the tree.
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