Ignat Day
memories from grandparents
It is said that in the night before the Ignat Day the pig "is dreaming" its fate. So, if it dreams red beads, it will be sacrificed the next day. A knife in its dream means, on the other hand, that its sacrifice is going to come later.
The story says that people are not allowed to do something else in their household than deal with the activities related to the pig's "sacrifice". The tradition also affirms that, in case a family doesn't have a pig in their household, they must "kill" another animal instead.
The animal "killed" in this day is a substitute of the ancient god that dies and resurrects after that. Also, the merciful persons are forbidden to take place to this sacrifice as this will cause a slow and painful death of the animal, which will result in bad meat.
According to the legend, a man called Ignat, trying to sacrifice the animal, struck himself dead with the axe that was intended to serve his action. His son, after burring his father, overwhelmed by the tragic event, set off in a long journey around the world. As many people affirm, Ignat is the sun divinity, which took over the name and the celebration date of St. Ignatie Teofanul.
We celebrate the Ignat Day at my grandparents' house. Actually, the ritual begins as early as 5 a.m., when my grandparents fill with water the coppers under which they will light the fire and prepare the necessary tools for sacrificing the swine and preparing the meat (onion, boiled rice, spices, garlic and salt).
Around 6.30-7.00 a.m. all the family and relatives gather together in order to drink a glass of plum brandy to "have good meat". After a fast breakfast they begin to stab the animal. Then they collect the animal's blood in a vase, which will serve to the preparation of a traditional food, called "sangerete".
After all this having been done, it comes the pig "burning" and cleaning with a brush, knife and warm water with a lot of salt until the skin becomes white-yellowish. There is a technique in skin burning so that it is neither uncooked, nor overburned. After all this operations have been completed, the skin is rubbed with salt (symbol of purity) and covered with a kind of material to keep it fresh.
It is time that we, the children, woke up. This in case the sound of the swine's last screams hasn't done this before. Usually, the children are allowed to sleep until the "killing" ritual is completed, bearing the above-mentioned thought of the mercy person in mind.
We wash in great hurry and then run to catch those animal's insignificant things that create so much satisfaction: ears, tail, cleaned skin. We eat in great delight and stare at everything around.
Well, another custom follows: a sign in the form of a cross is slashed on the pig's forehead and then covered with salt so that the animal's spirit rises easier. In other regions this sign is made on the nape. This is the moment for the children to be marked by the grandparents on their foreheads and napes in the belief they will be red and healthy all the next year long.
After the swine has been stick off and "deprived" from its head, the ham is cut off, then the chops and the fletch; the backbone is separated from the ribs with an axe and the stomach is cleaned. The pieces are then laid on a table to drain from blood.
After this part of the ritual is finished grandma bring some boiled plum brandy as a reward for the workers, as she considers that "active people must be heated up".
While other women in the family are doing their job cleaning pork's bowels and stomach (used for sausage and a traditional dish called "toba"), grandma is melting the fat for "jumari" in a huge cast-iron kettle and the water for polenta in another little one.
A great deal of the meat is going to be salted, fried and mixed with melted fat in order to be kept for a longer time.
The traditional lunch consists of a sour soup with meatballs and baked pork ribs. No break for lunch. Everyone eat when she/he is hungry.
The men are cutting and separating the meat on various types. They sort it according to its destination (preparation), they put salt and spicy. On the Ignat day the family work is extremely precise, careful and everybody knows the smallest detail of his/her job, so that the entire act of the sacrifice becomes a genuine ritual.
Until the evening the tasks are realized in an alert rhythm, without too much talk. All the work is ended by a common meal called "the pig alms".
After the friends that came to help with the food preparation left, grandma puts apples to bake in the oven and then she starts the old story.
"Once upon a time, when flea was shoed with 99 pounds of iron, when the people were living in the time of the fairy-tales and God was not getting around these places yet, the witchcraft and magic were replacing the Truth.
Then, it happened that in our mountainous places arrived one so-called Andrei, and the hidden old gods died slowly of sadness. But they left their place to a star to shine on Galilee sky for us, too. The Earth shined at once and the child born in that moment became the real Truth…"
All these memories belong to the time of my childhood, but I chose to write them in the present time, as they are as real in my heart as they were in those moments.
I cry with one of my eyes and laugh with the other one. The one that laughs is doing this because of those great moments that were once part of my life. The other one that cries is looking far in the future with the regret that my grandchildren will have little chances to participate to the Ignat Day. To live it with the eyes and heart of any children. Why?
My grandma was organizing all the work, while the other family members were "qualified workers" according to their age and knowledge. And everything is transmitted from generation to generation.
Now, the one that rules is my aunt… and the inheritance chain breaks here. Because we, the grandchildren, cannot preserve the tradition in the place where we are finding now.
Just imagine! I live in an apartment house. How could I celebrate the Ignat Day with the animal "sacrifice" on the building staircase? Buy one already prepared to pretend I keep the old traditional day? Where is the magic of the pig sacrifice that was the color and the "core" of that day? No way! Forget it!
The places where the Ignat Day "is in its force" are fewer as time goes on. And with the passing of generations, they will become more rare. So, dear traveler, hurry up, cause the Ignat tradition and customs at the countryside are still alive. But nobody knows for how long!
Such a pity! Cause Ignat Day is a pure Romanian tradition.
Next feast day: Christmas Eve.
Read more about Ignat Day customs and superstitions
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