St. George’s Day
On St. George’s Day, April 23rd (Dyourdyev Dan), long before dawn, all the members of a Serbian family rise and take a bath in the water, in which a number of herbs and flowers—each possessing its own peculiar signification—have been cast before sunset the preceding day. He who fails to get up in good time, and whom the sun surprises in bed, is said to have fallen in disgrace with St. George, and he will consequently have little or no luck in any of his undertakings for the next twelve months. This rite is taken as a sign that the Serbian peasants yield to the many influences of newly awakened nature.
It will be seen by anyone who studies the matter that each season in turn prompts the Serbians, as it must prompt any simple primitive people, to observe rites pointing to the mysterious relation in which man finds that he stands to nature.
[1] The male members of a Serbian family continue to live after marriage in the paternal home. If the house is too small to accommodate the young couple, an annexe is built. The home may be frequently enlarged in this way, and as many as eighty members of a family have been known to reside together. Such family associations are called ‘zadrooga.’
[2] One of the principal characters in King Nicholas’s drama The Empress of the Balkans is a warrior called ‘Peroon.’
[3] See “Prince Marko and the Veela,” page 102.
[4] See “The Death of Marko,” page 117.
[5] See “The Building of Skadar,” page 198.
[6] Monk Marcus of Seres, Ζήτησις περί βουλχολάχων, ed. Lambros; Νέος Ἑλληνομν’ημων, I (1904), 336–352.
[7] ‘Pleiades’ are otherwise known under the name of Sedam Vlashitya.
[8] See “The Tsarina Militza and the Zmay of Yastrebatz.” page 129.
[9] A Serbian word of Turkish origin.
[10] This personage is usually a brother or very intimate friend of the bridegroom. He corresponds somewhat to the ‘best man’ at an English wedding, but his functions are more important, as will be seen.
[11] Forests have been considered until recently as the common property of all. Even in our day every peasant is at liberty to cut a Badgnak-tree in any forest he chooses, though it may be the property of strangers.
[12] Quoted from the historian Leopold von Ranke.