One of the big Slovene Christmas traditions is to celebrate Sveti Miklavž on Dec. 6th. In English we know him as Saint Nicolas. He really was a good guy who lived about 300 years after Jesus and gave money to poor people. One story is goes like this:
There were three daughters that were to poor to come up with a dowry. So one night he threw some money in their window and it landed in their stockings that were hanging up to dry.
That is where we get the idea for hanging up stockings at Christmas time.
Here in SLO, kids will put their shoes out the night before Miklavž and when they wake up there will be treats inside! Not a bad way to start the Christmas season, right?
Here's what landed in our shoes this week.
When the little dude found the shoes, he called from the other room with a little uncertainty in his voice, "Hey mom! Come look our shoes!"
Nice he didn't just rip into the candy without asking I guess!
In the SLO culture, they also talk about the little devils that go around with Sveti Miklavž and do something if you've been bad this year. But as outsiders to the culture, I feel quite comfortable adopting only the parts I like of the tradition. So were doing gifts in the shoes and no bad guys. It is a fun way to start talking about who we can gifts to now and (I'm not gonna lie) a nice excuse to splurge on my favorite candy bar just for me!
4 comments:
I love this.. how fun.. might have to fill our shoes next year...
Hey! Not sure if putting candy in shoes is a Slovene thing! My family didnt do that! We got our candy and oranges and mandarins in small baskets (we also got mobi kartice after we got cell phones haha :D)
Yap, i agree with Neja. We also didn`t get them in our shoes, but small baskets. Oh, well...i guess it doesn`t really matter where you get them, as long as you get something! :)
I LOVED St. Nicholas day as a kid! What fun that you get to be a part of that now. We used to get the candy in a plastic red boot, like a santa boot =)
You are bringing back memories for me =)
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