December 19
Nikoljdan: Saint Nicholas Day
Saint Nicholas of Myra
Nikoljdan falls on December 19, which is December 6 on the church calendar. It is the most widespread krsna slava among Serbs, kept by so many houses that an old saying claims half of Serbia celebrates that day and the other half goes visiting.
The saint of the day
Nicholas was bishop of Myra, a harbor town on the coast of Lycia in Asia Minor, in the fourth century. Sailors called on him in storms, and he is still honored as the protector of everyone who travels, by sea or by land. In 1087 Italian merchants carried his relics from Myra to Bari in southern Italy, and pilgrims visit them there to this day.
A fasting table
Nikoljdan always falls inside the Nativity Fast, so the slava table is a fasting table. Fish takes the place of roast meat, and in many houses fried carp sits at the center of the meal, with prebranac and lenten sarma around it. A good posna table takes more skill than an ordinary one.
What every slava needs
Three things stand on the table whatever the day: the slava candle, the slavski kolač, and the koljivo, boiled wheat prepared in memory of the dead. The kolač is blessed, turned, and broken, at home with the priest or in church. The slava itself passes down through the family, most often from father to son, together with the icon of the household’s saint. UNESCO placed the slava on its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2014, the first entry Serbia ever had there.
In a house that keeps Nikoljdan, the icon of Saint Nicholas hangs in a quiet corner all year. On December 19 the household lights the candle beneath it.
