The old is mixed with the new and the participant literally got lost among the very different ways of celebrating Christmas. Who was he and why was he important?
Where he came from, this is where the student came from
Are you waiting for Christmas, student? Perhaps you do not know about it at all, although it is mainly a Slavic tradition. In the past, on the solstice, someone was expected to be similarly important as today, the baby Jesus.
Polaznik was the first visitor to the house in the period between the feast of Saint Demetrius and the Baptism of the Lord, which is roughly the period from the beginning of November to the end of December. His main task was bring happiness, health, wealth and a good harvest to the house for the coming year.
The word zadznik is old and its meaning is something like a divine guest or a messenger of the ancestors who connects the world of the living with the world of the dead. This first guest was not random at all. He was supposed to be healthy, cheerful and strong. Such qualities were believed to be transferred to the household and everything in it.
The tradition survived, for example, in this form. The short post comes from The Story Ark Podcast YouTube channel.
Who was the student?
Traditionally, the student appeared around winter solsticewhen the days are the shortest and from now on the light will slowly increase.
Interestingly, in some areas the trainee’s role was not human at all.
The animal as the first guest was supposed to bring even more life-giving force. According to tradition, a young bull appeared in the doorwaysheep, pig or roosterwhich were led around the table so that “the animals go around the circle of happiness”.
While in some places the cottages arranged the student’s visit, in other places a random guest was designated as the student. It could be either a deliberate or an accidental visit.
Polaznik or pojaznik has been preserved in the tradition of the Orthodox Church, somewhere it is also referred to as an image of the Virgin Mary.
Christmas, or a mosaic of old and new
Polaznik belonged above all the Slavic cultural circle. He is known by Ukrainians, Poles, Slovaks, Slovenes, Serbs, Croats and Bulgarians.But the tradition differed in different regions.
In the Czech Republic, we often only learn about the student from folkloristic books, museums or from lovers of folk traditions. In our environment, these motifs have not developed as strongly as in the Balkans or Eastern Europe, but we can find similar elements here as, for example, in caroling or expecting the first guest for the New Year. In the foothills of Slovácko, the tradition of the student has been partially preserved, sometimes with verses and wishes for good luck.
What’s most interesting about all of this is how much Christmas actually is a cultural mix of diverse traditions distant civilizations, peoples, religions and how globalization has messed with it all.
At the time of the solstice, we celebrate the birth of Christ, while in many countries Saint Nicholas or Nicolaus, also known as Santa Claus, brings gifts. The Egyptians decorated palm trees, the Germans hundreds of years later trees and so on. Even differently than or even today. Unfortunately, the student has disappeared from the surviving traditions.
