Luca Day - 13 december - Witchspotting and asking for love hints from pigs

Luca did not bring presents, but punished

Eastern Central Europe is a place where Drakula and other scary faces feel at easy - woods, gloomy weather, medieval castles... So considering this, you won't be surprised to read that we have a very famous witch in Hungary, namely Luca. Her figure got mixed up with that of Saint Lucia, the bride of Jesus who lived in Syracusa - and from this not very usual fusion many entertaining and creepy folk traditions and superstitions were born...

So we have St Lucia, bringing marriage and love to a home and Luca, the witch spreading evil and creepy things. Let's see just some of the traditions in Hungary on 13 December (Luca Day):

Luca the witch

St Lucia

  - It was usual to make tricky jokes with each other or even steal around (for example steal the door of the gardean). Or you could disguise yourself as a clown and go on asking for money. Like some kind of more brutal and anarchistic version of Halloween Trick or Treating.

 - Luca dressed in white was also said to roam the houses  and ask the children if they knew how to pray... If they did not, that had consequences... If they knew it, they DID NOT get any presents. Like an anti santa claus!

 - WOMEN SHOULD NOT WORK THIS DAY (at least weaving, cooking and this kind of stuff... probably sitting in front of a laptop was not on the list). Luca punished everyone severely who dared  to do chores this day.

 Dying to know who are the witches in the village or your office? So stard building a chair on Luca Day. You have to build it little by little every day finishing it in 13 days When you have your Luca chair ready, stand up on it on the midnight mass and then you will spot the witches around. If you did so, better run fast away... and burn the chair after the mass - you know: no evidence, no crime.

Luca Chair

Marriage and love have always been in the center of attention of girls. St Lucia helped everyone to find the right man and Luca had some witchy techniques to find out about this. So instead of working, women got together and performed these rituals to get clues for the future marriage:

- Instead of a psychologist, you could ask for help from a pig. kick the cage of the pig and depending on how many times it grunted, you had to wait so many years to get married.

 - Curious about your future love's name? So write boy names on 12 little papers,  or bake the names insied a kalács (sweet bread). The last kalács remaining will tell you your big love's name for next year. One of the papers was thrown each day into fire and there could be just one man standing in this case as well. Do not cheat by writing the same name on all of them - Luca will punish you!

These customs as fading away - but even if you do not have a pig nearby, or enough time to build a chair, you could take some which you like and do them. Who knows when it  will come on handy to be in friendly terms with a Hungarian witch?

Zsuzsa Bakonyi