Dječji badnji čestitarski ophodi i običaji u folkloru Hrvata
Children ’s Christmas Eve Congratulatory Processions and Customs in the Folklore of the Croats

Summary/Abstract: There is no information about children’s Christmas Eve congratulatory processions within the Croatian folklore in the scientific and professional literature, except for the children’s Christmas Eve carol processions. Therefore, this paper lists and interprets in a multidisciplinary way around thirty contemporary records of children’s Christmas Eve congratulatory processions which were made during the period from 2006 to 2013 in the Republic of Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Children’s Christmas Eve congratulatory processions are called: mother hens, position, Christmas Eve carolers or Christmas Eve carol singers (Koleda). The paper also lists customs that accompanied children’s Christmas Eve processions. Processions and customs have a social, sympathetic, apotropaic, panspermic and divinatory function. Children’s belief, for example in Split, that if they look at the sky during the Christmas Eve night they will be able to see heaven and all the God’s saints is closely related to the above mentioned processions.

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