Christmas may be celebrated throughout the world, but that doesn’t mean it is celebrated in exactly the same way. With the holidays fast approaching, and Advent festivities in full swing throughout Croatia, families are frantically finishing their final preparations for the season. Though, of course, no two celebrations are exactly alike, what might a traditional Croatian Christmas look like?
Croatia is a mainly Catholic country, so Christmas is one of the most important holidays in the calendar, full of ritual and tradition.
Perhaps more full of fanfare than Christmas Day itself is Christmas Eve, Badnjak. The day typically begins with decorating the tree, which might include sweets alongside the familiar baubles and tinsel, with some going the whole hog and placing a nativity scene at the base.
Focus then falls on the kitchen as an assortment of little cakes and biscuits are baked, ready for consumption on Christmas Day, while preparations for the centrepiece of the day – dinner – begin in earnest. Typically, the menu consists of some kind of fish meal, with bakalar (a salted cod delicacy) a popular choice – though by no means the only option. Seafood risotto or fish stew are also popular on the Christmas Eve dinner table in Croatia.
After dinner, children receive their presents, though it is also customary for this to be done on Christmas morning. In some cases, presents are given at both times, after all, Santa rolls through town in the dead of night to add to the gifts given by hardworking parents. Capping off the evening, families head off to midnight mass to usher in the holiday and celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Christmas Day is a comparatively more relaxed affair, but still full of food and cheer. Families gather for a roast lunch, with the familiar turkey – perhaps the most common bird found on tables – served alongside mlinci, thin strips of flatbread that have stewed in the juices of the roasted meat.
Out come the cakes, up come the feet, and the rest of the day goes by at a largely (and deservedly) lazy pace.