What is tradition for Ignazhden?
A45: Ignazhden (Ignajden) is nameday of Ignat (from the Latin word meaning ‘fire’), Plamen, Ognyan, Plamena, etc. It is celabrate on 20 December. This day marks the beginning of the folk New Year. On the evening before, the woman of the house prepares the table for Ignazhden – dishes without meat and a big bun which is divided into pieces in the morning by the “crawler” (the first guest to the house). Then she takes with a spoon some of the boiled wheat and corn (chinichka), tastes some of it, and the rest she throws over the fire for the chicken to fly freely and the wheat to grow high. While throwing she says: “As much coal in the oven so much prosperity during the year!” “Amen!”, the others say. And they know that as the holiday table is rich the hosts will be twice as rich. Then the woman of the house makes a circle of a man’s sash in the yard and within it she feeds the chicken so that they don’t go to other people’s yards. She keeps the hens to lay eggs in their own nest for in t
