Research report by the Jagiellonian University, Poland - cult rural

22hand and not dropped on the floor, because it forecast the death of the person in the oncomingyear. The dinner ended in a joint prayer.The time until midnight, when everybody went to the Christmas midnight mess“pasterka”, was devoted to fortune-telling. One of them was “bicie kóp’ which was throwingstraw at the ceiling and counting how many blades stayed in it. They believed that this wasthe number of stacks that would be collected during next harvest. They also tied the spoonsleft on the table with hey so that the cattle in pastures stays together. Girls used to run out ofthe house and shout to hear from which side the echo would reply. It would be the directionfrom which the future husband would come. Farmers went to orchards and tied the trees withbinders so that they have better fruit. It was also common to give the leavings of theChristmas dishes to the live-stock to make them healthy. Whereas, boys going to “pasterka”lit wisps of straw in fields. It was to protect the harvest from damages.Carollers visited homes at Christmas. The purpose of this visit was to wish thehousehold well. Groups of carollers, composed of young men in fancy dress, bringing a crib,a star, “turoń” or horse arranged various performances. Carolling is started by requesting thehost to accept it. On entering the house one of religious carols was sung and then theperformance was made after which the proper carolling was started. It was dedicated toparticular members of the family, starting from the host, hostess, and then girls and boys. Thesung sentences had fantastic contents, among others, about finding a gold ridge whileploughing, hunting for a deer with gold antlers, an orchard giving gold apples, but also abouta happy love. The carolling was completed by a girl dancing with the disguised visitors,wishes success and the carollers Christmas food, drink, and sometimes money.As it has already been mentioned, one element of a carolling group was a crib. it had aform of a small building covered with a pitched roof with a stage in the front wall, on whichmotionless figures are fitted: God’s Mother, St. Joseph, a feeding trough with baby Jesus, thethree wise men, and animals: a donkey, lambs and an ox. At the front of the stage there aremovable dolls: a witch, a Jew, a devil, a Gipsy, shepherds, Herod, which were moved bycaroller standing behind the crib. The crib rested on four “legs”. The texts of performances ofNativity plays were prepared and learned during Advent.An attribute of majority of carolling groups was a star. It was usually made of a hoop ofa worn-out sieve to which a cardboard arms of the star were attached. It was all covered incolourful paper. The star was attached to a pole with a horizontal axle which enabled itsturning round.