Xmas Special – Srčeka or Little hearts

The time has come for a story about – a heart. Srčeko, or small heart, as their creators call it. This also happens to be this year’s last Xmas Special. The small heart fits the season perfectly. 

Enjoy the podcast episode here, or scroll down for the text version:


I’ll start with an unexpected random question that popped up in my mind? How much is a srčeko worth?

In Northwestern Croatia, where I live, there is a very typical cookie. It’s made out of just a few ingredients. Let’s see, what does it take to make it? Flour, some yeast, water, and honey. You know what, it doesn’t really have to be honey. Simply add some sugar instead, makes very little difference. 

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Xmas Special – Holiday Greetings

Here we are with another Quick Croatian Class. You seem to be enjoying the set of blogs and episodes under this name. By the way, you might have noticed that this podcast covers so many different topics. You can find them organized in the main menu, under PODCAST. It contains a dropdown menu, and it contains all the different topics. If you’re interested in just some of the things I share, such as Folk Customs, or Legends& Mysteries, or Curious Personalities, or Quick Croatian Class, click on that, and only the relevant episodes will show up. 

In these past few months, it so turned out that I prepared a bunch of seasonal episodes. There were several episodes inspired by the Halloween season, and then, throughout December, you’ve been listening to the episodes inspired by the Christmas season in Croatia. It’s about time, then, I tell you more about the names of various holidays in Croatia. Maybe you can use some of this word wisdom for your holiday greetings this year. 

I’m going to cover various holidays, but let’s start with the ones that are currently on our minds. Let’s start with Christmas! 

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Xmas Special – St Lucy’s Little Christmas

I’m back with some more Croatian Christmas customs. I hope you survived the St Nicholas eve. You don’t know about it? That means you haven’t listened to the previous episode – make sure to go back and get to know the “fun” traditions related to St Nicholas feast day. For those of you who did listen to it, I hope the last episode didn’t scare you off and that you came back for more unusual Croatian traditions. Let’s meet St Lucy! Listen to the episode or scroll down to continue reading.

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Xmas Special – St Nicholas Feast Day Joys and Scares

There are many symbols of the Christmas season, and the joy of children is definitely one of them. That joy is often connected with receiving gifts. In some parts of the world that celebrate Christmas, things are easy. There’s the good old Santa, he comes down the chimney with his gifts, and that’s it.

In other parts, it’s a little bit more complicated when it comes to Christmas gift bringers. Croatia is one of those parts. Croatia is still mostly roman catholic. There are many Christmas saints in different parts of Croatia associated with bringing presents. There’s, for example, St Barbara, St Nicholas, St Lucy, Baby Jesus, even Three Wise Men.

Instead of reading, why don’t you play the podcast episode? If you prefer to read, scroll down under the player and enjoy the rest of the story:

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Xmas Special – Croatia Has What It Takes for the Season to Be Jolly

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.

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