Respect St. George’s Day, make it good for you and your family, but don’t do some things!

Church, Orthodoxy ,, Photo: Hello! / Vladimir Markovic

Saint George’s Day is one of the largest celebrations of the Serbian people. However, this Serbian Christian and national holiday is celebrated in our area by the Roma and the Gorani. St. George’s Day or Den Juren it’s Gorani’s day. No greetings or just a greeting Airljija Đuren (Happy St. George’s Day) May 6 is St. George’s Day. St. George’s Day is a great spring festival for the three nations.

According to some legends, it was the baptismal glory of the great hero Marko Kraljevic.

According to the old popular calculation of time, Saint George’s Day was and still is a year and a half: the time was calculated from and until Saint George’s Day. Hence the famous belief in our town that there was a hajduk gathering for St. George’s Day and a hajduk farewell for Mitrovdan.

Church, faith, prayer, orthodoxy, Photo: Tanjug

When it comes to ceremonies, it is customary to decorate houses with flowers, willows, and greenery. Herb wreaths are woven and then hung on the stable door or gate in rural areas. This custom has been mainly maintained in the countryside, while it can be seen less frequently in large cities.

Many do not eat sheep and lamb milk until this spring break, nor do they sleep in nature until St. George’s Day. Also, many do not milk goats and sheep until that day, and on St. George’s Day, for the first time, they milk all the small cattle and make cheese, the first package brought to the priest for blessing.

On the eve and on the day of Saint George, there are many customs that we must respect.

Country girls also bring veined flowers to plant in their gardens and place the other flowers, tied in bouquets, under the eaves on the east side so that they remain standing until St. George’s Day. On St. George’s day, they cut it, mix it with other St. George’s flowers, and give the cattle good health.

Photo: Shutterstock

In addition, wreaths of “lily of the valley” are woven: lily of the valley, milkweed and others, and the front door of the courtyard and the house are decorated with it. Those wreaths remain on the door throughout the year, until the next St. George’s Day. Many make hazelnut crosses and place them in fields, gardens, and buildings, to save themselves from the city (similar to Christmas tree crosses for Christmas).

Swimming in the river, before the sun, is also very important (sometimes crowns of various flowers are thrown into the river or milk is poured). To be healthy and strong, people adorned themselves with flowers and herbs, surrounded themselves with willow and dogwood. In some places, youngsters rocked on a dogwood tree, “to be as healthy as a dogwood,” and girls rolled on green wheat, “so that their hair would grow like wheat.” Of particular importance to these customs are herbs (such as selenium, nettle, willow, dogwood, green wheat, etc.), which men and women use to “commune” or immerse themselves in the water in which bathe or roll on them. , or (if it is a tree) swing (

Church, Photo: Hello! / Leave Briza

On St. George’s Day, early before sunrise, people go together to nature at the “St. George’s Day sunrise”, to some convenient place in the forest of their choice, in a clearing or by the river. Food and drink are prepared for this; It is mandatory to prepare the lamb on a skewer, and those who are in charge of it, go to the scheduled place much earlier and begin preparations for the skewer to rotate a lot when the others come. Song, dance, and joy often last until noon.

At the dawn of St. George’s Day, young people are surrounded by willow twigs “to be as advanced as a willow”, whales with “healthy to be as healthy as a toad”, nettle “to burn disease with nettle” and selenium “so that his soul smells like selenium”.

garland, Photo: Shutterstock

Before St. George’s Day, selenium should not be collected or smelled, and on St. George’s Day everyone takes a stalk and smells it and puts it on a belt, and girls and young people on a necklace. It is not good to sleep on Saint George’s day, “so as not to have a headache”, and if someone slept “on Saint Mark’s day to sleep in the same place”. Witches and other evil forces are believed to operate on St. George’s day, so the villagers lit great fires “to protect themselves and the people.”

The customs related to St. George’s Day are performed before dawn, and often on the river, which undoubtedly has a magical meaning. However, most customs belong to pure magic, in which the one who performs them does not have in mind any particular demon or deity.

Saint George, Saint George, Photo: Hello

It was believed that if St. George’s Day was clear, it would be a fruitful year, and if it rained on these holidays and the next day, the summer would be dry. It is said in Serbia that the more weeks before St. George’s Day, the more grain there will be that year.