Original scientific paper
CROATIAN PANSPERMIC CUSTOMS, RITUALS, PROCESSIONS AND DIVINATIONS IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT
Marko Dragić
orcid.org/0000-0001-5362-6814
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Splitu, Split, Hrvatska
Abstract
Panspermic customs, rituals, processions and divinations are, in their essence, archetypal pre-Christian cultures. People christianized them and associated them with Christian feasts. Položaj (the first guest) on Saint Barbara’s feast day was a woman, and on Saint Lucy’s feast day položaj was a man. On Christmas Eve and Christmas, boys (položaji) used a poker to stir fire expressing their wishes for the coming year, and the hostess threw grain on them. The decoration of houses and property with green shrubs, the decoration of Christmas bread, the ceremonial
bringing in of yule- logs and straw and its spreading on Christmas Eve all have a panspermic, apotropaic, and sympathetic function. During the Christmas Eve dinner and on Christmas, lunch divinations were performed. On Palm Sunday, fir, pine or olive branches were blessed and stuck into fields, gardens, orchards, vineyards and put in houses and farm buildings for a panspermic and apotropaic purpose. It was
believed that sprinkling girls with water on Easter Monday would be an aid to fertility. Processions on Saint George feast day (jurjaški) have a panspermic and apotropaic function, and barefooted queens, ljelje, on Whit Sunday transfer their fertility to soil. On the eve of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist bonfires and customs, rituals and divinations related to them are the centre of attention. Croatian panspermic customs, rituals, processions and divinations are the same as or similar
to other European nations.
Keywords
guest; abundance; luck; grain; fire
Hrčak ID:
154300
URI
Publication date:
19.2.2016.
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