It’s 25th November, people! St Catherine’s. We have this saying in Croatia: Sveta Kata snijeg na vrata! Holy Kathy, the snow we’re getting… That was a terrible try. Hey, I have a perfect translation:
St Kate, snow at the gate!
I’m happy with that one. You won’t believe it, it was snowing in some parts of Croatia, so the old saying has been confirmed to be true! We already had a few flakes in some parts a few days ago, but last night, the mountains were covered with a thin but proper layer of snow.
As you can imagine, this saying was born Croatian folk because this date was noticed as the turn between the seasons. Even though the winter is not officially here yet, the folk used to consider this a start of the coldest part of the year.
You know what St Kate’s snowflakes remind me of? Christmas season!
In the last few Croatia Underrated podcast episodes, you might have noticed that I am into some holidays! I can’t help it, I love the Halloween season, as well as the Christmas festivities, and everything about them. I especially appreciate the end of the year since it is one of the most magical periods in Croatian folklore. All over Croatia, you will find curious customs, strange beliefs, fortunetelling routines, throughout December. Actually, you won’t always find them, they are sometimes forgotten, lost, or seemingly outdated. Fear not, Croatia Underrated is here to help unveil them!
Just like with the previous set of episodes – Halloween specials, stay tuned for the upcoming Christmas specials! I won’t be publishing them on Tuesdays, as usual, but around the most fitting dates.
I have been reading a whole lot about folk customs and imaginary related to this season, and I have even been running the Zagreb Christmas Carol Tour, a special seasonal tour, part of Secret Zagreb tours, which helped me in my research a lot.
It’s only fair then to start this set of Xmas specials from Zagreb. I’m going to use this opportunity to share two articles from the Love Zagreb blog.
Listen to the entire episode, the two Love Zagreb stories included, here:
If you prefer to read, here are the links:
Zagreb Has What it Takes for the Season to be Jolly
Christmas Toy Joy
Hope this episode was a nice introduction to the Christmas season and, that, by now, you can imagine that it gets very lively and cozy here in Zagreb before Christmas.
If you can’t come to Zagreb right now, and you’re thinking… why is this woman torturing us with these stories, there’s no way we’re getting to Croatia these days. First of all, I hope there will be a chance for you to visit in the future. Second, the next episode will help you deal with the far-away-ness from Croatia. You might want to skip these parts in December after all. You’ll hear all about it next week.
After this episode, expect one dedicated to St Nicholas and his..ehm… pet companion? I will publish it on 5 December so that you will have enough time to get ready for the terror that gets unleashed on that eve!