The legend says that Churchill wrote a letter in 1946 to thank the ‘Jajex’ exporting company for ensuring he had the much beloved Zagorje turkey on his Christmas menu. The only indigenous breed, grown outdoors on the rolling Zagorje hills, zagorska purica has won the hearts and palates of many – including Winston Churchill. The top choice is always zagorska purica . Booking your turkeyĮven city dwellers pull connections to find someone who knows someone who keeps turkeys. Which is why many Croats still ‘book’ their animals months before the first Advent candle is lit up. Your Christmas table genealogy also loses a few threads. Of course, if you’re buying just meat in a supermarket, without getting to know the animal, you miss out on much of this wisdom. We learn from animals how to embrace the wisdom of change: how to leave this year’s dust behind and root forward into the new beginnings. A pig, on the other hand, roots forward with its snout. A bird – usually a turkey – uses its feet to toss dust and dirt behind itself. To properly celebrate the birth of Christ and the coming of New year, you need two animals: a bird and a pig. They’ll be happy and won’t get fat – at least not in the long run.Ĭall it a diet, a clever weight management approach, or the culture of eating – this meticulous balance between fasting and feasting, control and going all out, is the proven way to count down to Christmas.Ĭlick the arrow to the right to move along the timeline! Your hosts, on the other hand, have been preparing for a long time to eat just as much as you, with the opposite outcome. And the result? You’ll fatten up and feel guilty. There’ll be so much scrumptious, irresistible food which you’ll gobble down over a few days. Well, if you join Croats at their Christmas table, you’ll parachute only at the feast time. You might be wondering: why is this deep-rooted tradition important if you’re only visiting Croatia? Come Christmas Day, people feast on fattened animals only to – briefly – end up as fat as their food. During Christmas countdown, people fast, and animals are fattened up. The weight of people and the weight animals that people eat move in opposite directions. And it involves a carefully managed system of fasting, feasting and fattening up.Ĭhristmas countdown has one basic rule. The bounty we show off at and around the Christmas table has a long genealogy. Twinkling lights, bustling Christmas markets, shopping frenzy… All familiar and by now commercial elements are here.īut real preparations for the December bread and circuses begin much earlier. We’ve been eager to light up that first Advent candle and begin our Christmas countdown.
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