4 minutes reading time
When I got my kids and they were still babies (yes, the first two are less than 1,5 years apart so they were literally both babies:D) I wanted to find nice traditions that would make their childhood magical. We didn’t have that many traditions when I was a child since we’re not religious but we had some and I loved them – I always felt they add something magical. So I wanted to incorporate more of that into my kids’ lives.
So I asked around in a cooking forum full of kind women and got a lot of ideas about what people do and celebrate. We tried some traditions and fell in love with many of them (others happened quite unintentionally, though – like our celebration of Diwali :D).
So I didn’t know this tradition on Saint Barbara’s day until I was a grownup but we like it and we do it every year. I didn’t know that much about saints and St. Barbara was no exception – I knew what I learned in art history class in high school – but that was a long time ago and we didn’t learn about the ways people celebrate it… So in case you are in the same boat, here’s another nice tradition.
What is it about?
It is the tradition on the 4th of December (St. Barbara’s day) in the German-speaking countries, to cut branches of fruit (usually cherry) trees and place them into a vase with water. They are then kept in a warm place so that they bloom (hopefully by Christmas) and they are called Barbara’s branches (Barbarazweig). I am sure this tradition has some pagan roots with its very nature-based ritual.
Therefore, every year on the 4th of December elves bring us 3 copper coins and a little packet of sugar. At first, they left notes but now kids already know what to do with it. They place everything in the vase – copper slows down the growth of bacteria so that branches don’t get rotten and the water doesn’t stink (you still need to change it every so often) and the sugar is to give the branches energy to bloom. According to florists, this should help.
To be perfectly honest we rarely get the branches to bloom. Sometimes we succeded but never to a full bloom that everybody would admire. But we still do it. And it’s still fun. I don’t know why – maybe because it’s not about the end result after all;).
So to make the branches look nice even if they never get to bloom, we can decorate them with bubbles, elves or even mini art journals;).
Very Arty Fairy 