The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 10 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 10 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
(M219) Meanwhile the children and young people go from house to house
singing special songs called _Colleda_ because of an old pagan divinity
Colleda, who is invoked in every line. In one of them she is spoken of as
“a beautiful little maid”; in another she is implored to make the cows
yield milk abundantly. The day is spent in busy preparations. The women
bake little cakes of a special sort in the shape of lambs, pigs, and
chickens; the men make ready a pig for roasting, for in every Servian
house roast pig is the principal dish at Christmas. A bundle of straw,
tied with a rope, is brought into the courtyard and left to stand there
near the Yule logs.
(M220) At the moment when the sun is setting all the members of the family
assemble in the central hall (the great family kitchen) of the principal
house. The mother of the family (or the wife of the chief of the
Zadrooga)(670) gives a pair of woollen gloves to one of the young men, who
goes out and presently returns carrying in his gloved hands the largest of
the logs. The mother receives him at the threshold, throwing at him a
handful of wheat, in which the first chip of the oak tree cut in the early
morning for the Yule log has been kept all day. Entering the central hall
with the Yule log the young man greets all present with the words: “Good
evening, and may you have a happy Christmas!” and they all answer in
chorus, “May God and the happy and holy Christmas help thee!” In some
parts of Servia the chief of the family, holding a glass of red wine in
his hand, greets the Yule log as if it were a living person, and drinks to
its health. After that, another glass of red wine is poured on the log.
Then the oldest male member of the family, assisted by the young man who
brought in the log, places it on the burning fire so that the thicker end
of the log protrudes for about a foot from the hearth. In some places this
end is smeared with honey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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