The festive Christmas mood and anticipation of the happiest Christian holiday among Orthodox people begins with Saint Nicholas. It is customary to sow the obligatory decoration on the Christmas table on that big day - young wheat, which symbolizes the fertile year.
Christmas is celebrated in memory of the birthday of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is a holiday of the birth of a new life, it is imbued with the most beautiful religious customs and rituals in our country. In addition to Christmas Eve, the garlic that breaks and the lamp that burns until the Epiphany, there will be Christmas wheat on the table.
Many sources mention two dates as suitable for sowing Christmas wheat - one is the feast of St. Nicholas, December 19, and the other is the day of St. Barbara (Varvara) - December 17. For Catholics, on December 13, Christmas wheat is sown on St. Lucia's Day.
The sowing of wheat on the day of St. Barbara (Varvara) is connected with the custom of cooking "varice" from various cereals, on that day, dishes that are eaten the next day. Corn, wheat, beans, peas are cooked in "varica" - mostly grains, which are cooked over low heat. The dish is also called "savica", because it is eaten the next day, on the feast of the Venerable Sava the Consecrated.
Christmas wheat should be green and lush, because the crops will be the same during the year, says the old belief.
According to popular belief, the meaning of this custom is to pray to God to preserve and increase the family and property of the host, with a prayer toast on Christmas day:
- Give, God, health and joy in this home, let healthy children be born to us, let wheat and vines be born to us, let our property in the field, barn and barn be increased - the family will say.
On St. Nicholas Day, I put wheat to start growing until Orthodox Christmas. That is when my older son was born.