Ignat Day
Customs and superstitions
The traditions on Ignat Day are actually ancient rituals, which managed to survive to passing of time, circulating together or being the root to many of the current Christian rituals.
There is not such a long way between the old human sacrifices devoted to gods and the nowadays tradition of "sacrificing" the pig on Ignat Day. But, maybe, is not really like this. What is certain is that pig sacrifice comes from very old, but yet not gone, times.
As time goes on, animal sacrifices replaced the human ones and if was not possible to sacrifice a pig or a hen, at least you could prick the comb of a bird. A few drops of blood could protect you from many diseases. Maybe this is an explanation for the "thirst of blood" present today in our lives.
Like on other feast days, work is forbidden (Saint Ignat punishes severely all those who work on that day). The rule has its exceptions: all the persons taking part to the "feast" of sacrificing the animal. Those who really need to work on the day of December 20 are allowed to do this only after they have seen blood; otherwise, "the women will grunt like pigs or their linen will be torn by the same pigs".
On the days from December 20 to January 8 the women were forbidden to spin in order not to "spin" their days, meaning to reduce their number. Sewing is not allowed, too. The persons wearing them will prick themselves or cut with a knife or another sharp object.
Few days before the Ignat Day the people feed the animal more than before, including with pumpkins, as they will have its meat as food for the entire year.
Moreover, the pumpkin is believed to get magical powers on the Ignat Day. Its stalk is considered cure to different types of skin problems, so is advisable to keep them instead of throwing them away. And, in order to obtain an abundant pumpkin crop the next year, people plant the seeds in the same weekday as the one in which the pig sacrifice took place.
The old belief among the people is that in the night before Ignat, a saint appears in the animals dreams telling them their lives will end soon, the same saint taking their souls in the dawns of the next day. If the pig will not be sacrificed there is the danger to be eaten by wolves. The other variant is that a bad period will come for the animals intended to die, as "after the Ignat Day, the pig will grow thin".
St. Ignat affects the people, too: those who get sick on that day will soon die, until the night or the end of the year.
The place where the sacrifice was realized is going to be marked by a line. There are gestures and rituals which are seriously respected: the swine is sprinkled with hallowed water, it's body is laid so that the head will come to the East, then a cross-shaped sign is marked on animal's forehead with a knife (Moldavia and Transylvania) or nape (regions like Arges, Olt, Brasov); on this sign people sprinkle some salt, they draw the swine in the house with its head backwards in all this time telling some magic words.
In case the swine is black people put a plate for collecting the blood underneath; then the millet is dried, grind and used for healing the persons suffering from a cold. The lard is used for witchcraft and spells.
By tradition, old people use to "read" the weather for the coming year by the sacrificed animal's spleen, as follows: generally, if this has grease, a long and severe winter is believed to come; a spleen with grease only at the ends or in the middle shows the winter period when the weather will be severe, with plenty of snow, for the villagers.
According to tradition, the "head" of the household finding clogged blood in the swine's neck will benefit from a wealthy year.
Previous feast day: Saint Nicholas Day.
Next feast day: Christmas Eve.
Read more about Ignat Day at my grandparents home
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