Nowolětka - New Year Figures

A particular mystic time of the year is between Christmas Day and the feast of Epiphany. On the threshold to the New Year nature appears full of secrets. Special procedures were used and oracles were consulted to find out much about the future and to keep sickness and bad luck away from the home and livestock in the following year. Two Sorbian writers, Leopold Haupt and Jan Arnost Smoler, note in their book "Sorbian Folksongs of Upper and Lower Lusatia" in 1841:

"In the evening before the new year and the feast of Epiphany, sometimes on the day itself, some people bake dough figures in the shape of cows, sheep, pigs, geese, and so on. They called the figures baked on the last day of the year "New year's little figures" (Sorbian: nowe ljetka) and the ones baked on the day of Epiphany "threesome" (Sorbian: tsjódrak). Children give these figures to their godparents and get a present in exchange. They feed it to the livestock that will hopefully grow big and healthy." Today these figures are made of savory dough.

Many people are not aware of the original meaning of these New Year figures, also called picture biscuits. Nevertheless, this very enjoyable custom is still alive today. Children and grownups enjoy forming these figures and giving them as a present to relatives and friends as a bearer of good tidings in the New Year.