St. Catherine (Sv. Kateřina) – Czech traditions on this day

November 25 is the Day of St. Catherine, a day of dance fun and joy organized by women before the Advent fasting.

Just like Fašank before the Lenten period, St. Catherine’s Day was the last chance to organize dance events before it was time to slow down and go through the Advent fasting. People would organize masquerade processions, theatre plays and especially dances. Such a dance would be called kateřinská zábava (St. Catherine Party), kateřinské hody or babský ples (Women’s dance) because women were responsible for the whole organization of the event. It was not a chore but an honor. They would save money since the spring and then use it to hire musicians. They would also bake koláče and roast poultry for the feast.

Žádné ranty, na sv. Kateřinu ženy platí muzikanty!

(“No rants, on St. Catherine’s Day, the women pay the musicians!”)

Also, there were quite a few weather sayings about this day. St. Catherine’s Day was mostly cold and often also wet and muddy. The saying Kateřina na blátě, Vánoce na ledě means that if there’s mud on this day, roads would be covered with ice at Christmas. The one which says Na svatou Kateřinu schováme se pod peřinu (We’ll hide under the blankets on St. Catherine’s Day) is a proof of our forefathers knowing that this would be a very cold day.

And there are also two recipes tied to this date. One of them I will mention later in this article, the other one is Jabkance, prepared especially in Česká Třebová, and the recipe is here.

St. Catherine

St. Catherine or svatá Kateřina in Czech was a beautiful and well-educated Christian girl who was imprisoned for challenging the Roman emperor to renounce paganism and convert to Christianity. When put in front of a committee of fifty philosophers who were supposed to dissuade her from the Christian beliefs, she managed to convert them. The emperor sentenced the to the stake and Catherine was given to the executioner who tortured her on a special wheel with knives. This device was destroyed by a lightning and in the end, the emperor had her executed. She never renounced her beliefs.

She became the patron saint of universities and protector of the virginity of nuns. Moreover, she is the patron saint of book printers, millers, thread makers, wheelwrights, sharpeners and in some places also barbers and surgeons. This is not where her patronage ends, St. Catherine is also the patron of all single women, whether they’re girls or older unmarried women, students or workers

Kateřinská zábava

You can sometimes hear that St. Catherine locked up the musicians and hung the violin in the chimney. It means that the festivity on this day is the last one for some time. And because the dances organized on the evening of St. Catherine’s Day were the last ones, they were really exuberant. On this day, working with tools that resembled the tolls she was tortured with was forbidden, which meant a free day for thread makers and many other people who earned their living manually. Sometimes, the dance would take place on November 22, St. Cecilia’s Day who was the patron saint of all musicians.

These dances are still organized today although it’s not everywhere just up to the women to organize the event.

Traditionally, the women would say good-bye to their dance partners with a small gift such as a flower or pastry, especially a pastry called Vrkoč. The base for vrkoč was plain raised dough like for koláče but with a construction of wooden sticks and nuts with dried fruit hanging on them. You can find the complete recipe for vrkoč here.

There would also be competitions revolving around typically female objects (at that time). For example, an apron was hanging from the ceiling until one of the boys took it down. Until then, it was ladies’ choice at the dance. And if there was no such game, the men would get their chance to ask the ladies for a dance only once or twice around midnight. The dance would last until the morning when, sometimes, the ladies’ choice would be abolished.

St. Catherine’s Day as Beginning of Christmas Season

After the dance, there were no more dances and no mirthfulness for some time as it was time to start preparing for Christmas. The household would be cleaned, everything had to be clean by the first Advent Sunday. First Christmas cookies were baked, even before the beginning of Advent.