A Very Merry Time in Montenegro

Montenegro is today's destination for Christmas.

A tiny country with less than 700,000 residents, it follows the Orthodox religion, and the Julian Calendar. So Christmas Eve is 6th January, and Christmas Day the 7th. You could go to New Zealand/Australia for Christmas Eve first up, fly to California on Christmas Morning and arrive before you leave, so you get another Christmas Day - and then, after New Year somewhere, pop over to Podgorica, the Capital City of Montenegro, and have yourself another Christmas! Fun!


I have some friends from Montenegro, living here in New Zealand, but planning on returning to their homeland to retire. It’s a place that has always fascinated me and I’ve loved listening to Melina telling me about it, and showing her photographs of their home, almost on top of a beautiful beach.

I started out looking for Christmas images of Montenegro and found myself falling in love with the architecture, the cobbled streets, the fraught history and the beautiful beaches that epitomise this tiny country. It’s bordered by five other countries, has over 100 beaches, and is around 5000 square miles in size. With more than 200 sunny days each year, it’s not surprising that Montenegro was once a tourist mecca.
I’m going to write a full feature on Montenegro at a later date, because today is just about Christmas. First up, of course, the Montenegrans follow the Julian Calendar, so Advent starts on 28 November. St Nicolas Day is 19th December. From after WWII until just before 2000 (I think) the communist government banned St Nicolas or Santa Claus, so they created another version called Grandfather Frost, or Christmas Brother, who came on New Year’s Eve. Now the custom of St Nicholas has been revived.

Christmas is very focused on family and church, with many traditions. They have a Christmas tree but traditionally the father of the family would go to the forest and cut down a young oak (called the “Badnjak”) and it would be decorated on New Year’s Eve, according to some traditions, or it would be cut on the morning of Christmas Eve, according to others.

Cold work chopping an oak log

These days it's easier to purchase an oak branch from outside the church!

It is brought inside, covered in wheat by the woman of the house, and then burned. Straw is often placed under the table as a symbol of the birth in the stable. 

A special bread, known as 'cesnica' is eaten by each member of the family, all hoping to get the coin that has been hidden in it – a token of good fortune for the coming year. 

On Christmas Eve, families gather. It is the last day of the Advent fast, during which no meat is eaten. In many households, bread and honey is served for breakfast and fish for lunch. There will be a big feast later!

Christmas services are very important, and everyone attends. Logs are brought to the churches, and I note in one church newsletter that: “The Metropolitan blesses and lights a fire of Yule logs in front of the Cetinje monastery. These logs are traditionally brought by the representatives of all tribes and parts from the Littoral, Boka, Old Montenegro, Zeta, Brdo, and Old Herzegovina. According to the old many-centuries custom the first badnjak was brought by the Bajica tribe - the Martinovics and the Borilovics.” The logs “symbolise the wood that was lit on fire in the cave where Jesus was born”.



At the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ at Podgorica the capital city, fireworks are lit and make a display in the night sky. The Cathedral is illuminated as families walk towards the church, carrying branches for the fire.
On Christmas morning, an important guest is the first well-wisher – traditionally male, who comes bearing gifts, to wish the family a merry Christmas and share breakfast with them.