On December 20, Romanians, especially the villagers, celebrate Ignatius, the day when, according to tradition, a pig is sacrificed for the Christmas meal.

The ritual of animal sacrifice is reminiscent of ancient peoples (Egyptians, Greeks, Romans) who sacrificed an animal during the transition from one year or season to another. This sacrifice symbolizes the year ending, but also the new life that is born – the new year.

The ancient Dacians sacrificed an animal as a symbol of the divinity of darkness, which weakened the power of the Sun on the shortest day of the year, the day of the winter solstice. To come to the aid of the Sun, people sacrificed pigs. After the Solstice, the day began to grow, and Christmas became a celebration of light and life, according to the volume “Cartea de Crăciun” by Sorin Lavrik (Editura Humanitas, 1997).

Origins of Ignatius

Folklorist Petru Karaman believed that the custom of slaughtering a pig on the day of Ignatius has its roots in the tradition of Roman antiquity. The Roman world practiced this sacrifice during the Saturnalia, between December 17 and 30, dedicating it to Saturn, originally the god of sowing. The pig itself was considered the embodiment of this deity, whose death and resurrection are consumed at the end of the old year and around the beginning of the new year.

The ritual of cutting a pig reminds of sacrifices in ancient times to deities who appeared and disappeared, were born and died during periods of renewal of calendar time. The pig was slaughtered on a certain day, Ignatius (December 20), and at a certain time of the day, usually at dawn. Catching and butchering an animal, butchering it gave enough time to carry out actions aimed at ensuring the health of the host in the new year, driving away evil spirits, predicting the weather for a longer period, fertilizing the fields for abundant fruits, therefore indicated “Romanian Holidays and Customs » Iona Ginoiu (Editura Elion, 2002).

Ignatius is, it seems, a solar deity who adopted the name and date of the celebration of St. Ignatius Theophanes (December 20) from the Orthodox calendar, synonymous with Ignatius of Swinsky. Sacrificing a pig and burning it on the day of Ignatius (Ignis = fire) are prehistoric customs preserved in the Romanian lands behind the Carpathians, writes Ion Ginoiu in the mentioned volume. The sacrifice had to take place during the day, because only light could scare away evil spirits. The place chosen for slaughtering the pig was subjected to a purification rite, smoked and sprinkled with holy water.

Ignatius nowadays

Nowadays, slaughtering a pig is an occasion for family unity, and for children – for joy and games. In the evening before Ignatius, several well-sharpened knives, a gas cylinder or a straw are prepared – for baking dishes in which meat, lard and mouse are placed.

Men slaughter the animal, and tradition requires that the one who slaughters the pig be a clean man, who before the sacrifice must go to church, confess, and the priest will forgive him for the sin of murder. pig. Women usually do not participate in the slaughter, their role begins the moment the pork reaches the kitchen table for cooking.

After slaughtering, the pig is washed, then burned on a straw bed. Sometimes branches of dogwood and jasmine are thrown into the fire to produce a fragrant mouse. After the pig is burned, it is covered with a tarpaulin and children climb on it, according to Sorin Lavrik’s Cartea de Crăciun (Editura Humanitas, 1997).

Ion Kryanga tells in his Childhood Memories about this moment: “At Christmas, when my father cut up a pig and roasted it, scalded it and quickly wrapped it in straw to stuff it to make it nicer, I used to ride the pig on the straw and I had a thousand lei, knowing that he was going to give me a pig’s tail to keep me cold, and I would fill his bladder with grains, inflate it, and smell it when it was dry.. .”

The women are responsible for dividing the meat into categories, but only after the man who cuts the pig makes a cross with a knife on the animal’s forehead and finishes cutting the pig. Put the meat on sausages, caltabose, drumsticks, on steak from the pork almshouse. Starting from the ears and tail, which are usually eaten by children, ending with lean meat and smoked lard, ending with the intestines, which were previously filled with minced meat, or the legs, which are used to prepare piftia, everything is used by housewives to prepare dishes for the table at Christmas. After cutting and sorting the meat, the hostess prepares a dish traditionally called “pork alms” for all the people who helped butcher the animal. Yes, the meat of a freshly slaughtered pig is fried in a large cauldron, cut from all parts of the pig: muscles, liver, bacon, ribs. Together with the steak, the hostess prepares a large pole, enough for everyone, and puts a bowl of pickles in the middle of the table. Usually the table is set in the yard, in front of the house, they eat while standing and drink boiled cognac.

The rest of the meat is used to prepare products intended for Christmas, New Year’s and Epiphany holidays: sausages, pifti, toba, kaltaboshi, sarmale, steak. At the same time, part is kept for consumption during the year.

Traditions and customs of Ignatius

In the Romanian tradition, we come across a number of customs related to Ignatius. So, on the eve of Ignatius, wheat is boiled, which is incensed and consecrated by the head of the family. This boiled wheat is eaten by all family members, and what remains is given to the birds in the morning. If the pig is black, a piece of its fat is taken and carried to the Church of the Epiphany so that the priest can consecrate it. Then it can be used by those who have sore legs or stab wounds. Pig liver is said to cure anemia or lack of appetite.

Tradition says that on the day of Ignatius it is forbidden to perform any other actions, the whole day is dedicated only to cutting, sorting and preparing pork dishes. In the village, it is believed that the pig’s spleen reveals the length of winter: if the spleen is thick at the end, it is a sign that there will be a hard winter with a lot of snow, and if it is thin, it indicates that the winter will have little snow and the new year will be dry. In some regions of the country, there is a custom where the owner of the house takes a little pig’s blood on his finger and draws a cross on the children’s foreheads to keep them healthy.

Between Ignatius and the Nativity of Christ, women grind wheat, from which they prepare a kind of kalachi, called “Christ’s diapers”, prepared with honey and ground walnut, which are eaten on Christmas Eve. (source: Agerpres)