{"id":4817,"date":"2025-12-03T05:11:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T05:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/velkeholky.org\/?p=4817"},"modified":"2025-12-04T08:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T08:55:09","slug":"kdyz-se-barbora-vraci-v-bilem-a-o-barborkach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/velkeholky.org\/en\/kdyz-se-barbora-vraci-v-bilem-a-o-barborkach\/","title":{"rendered":"When Barbora returns in white and about Barbora"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning I went outside to look around where I will hunt for Barbora tomorrow\ud83d\ude09 December 4th will be the feast of Saint Barbara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barborky \u2013 branches that bring hope<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The air was crisp, my fingers were slightly tingled with frost, but I needed it. Find the right cherry branch. <\/a>It will be a ritual. One of those quiet, beautiful ones that connect us to the women before us \u2013 to mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers. I stand in front of an old cherry tree, which must be over fifteen years old. I stroke the rough bark and choose. Not this one, it's too thin. This one has nice buds. Yeah, I'll definitely take this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I'll prepare a vase at home. And then I'll just wait. I'll check every day \u2013 are those tiny green tips there yet? Is it budding? Will it bloom? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tradition says that if the twig blooms by Christmas Eve, we will have good luck. In the past, it meant that the girl would get married within a year. Today\u2026 today it could mean anything. That something we carry in our hearts will come true. That next year will be good. That we are on the right track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mysterious woman in white<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Do you remember Barborky? Not the branches \u2013 but the characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the nineteenth century, on the evening of December 3, girls would walk through villages wrapped in white sheets, their hair loose over their faces or hidden under veils. In one hand, a basket of apples, nuts, and gingerbread. And in the other hand\u2026 a broom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They walked in silence. Sometimes they knocked, sometimes they just walked in. They sang a song about Saint Barbara, prayed with the family. The good children got fruit and sweets. The naughty ones? Well, they got whipped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There's something almost fairytale-like about it, don't you think? That white figure in the Advent darkness, bringing gifts and lessons. Tenderness and severity in one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"cherry<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When the secret is nipped in the bud<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This year I will cut three branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn't have any suitors like girls used to, who named each branch after a boy and waited to see which one would bloom first. (Imagine that \u2013 standing by a vase and thinking: "Come on, V\u00e1clav, don't let me down!" \ud83d\ude0a)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I have my own wishes. Quiet, private and very important! And the twigs somehow\u2026 know. As if in those buds is everything we expect from next year. Health. Well-being. Happiness of our loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I change their water every day. I talk to them. A little crazy, right? But it works. I can already see the first green tips. Something is alive in them. It's waking up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Barbora tells me today<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Her story is a harsh one. A virtuous, educated girl who was locked in a tower by her father. Then he even killed her himself because she refused to deny her faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I think about it differently than I did as a little girl. Today I'm a really big girl and I see in it the strength of a woman who couldn't be broken. Who knew what was important to her - and stood by it. Even when it hurt. Even when it cost everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And those barbies <\/a>\u2013 those white, mysterious figures? They were actually women who brought the message: be kind to others, have purity in your heart, and happiness will come. Nooo \u2013 Isn't it beautiful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A ritual that brings us back together<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This year, I invite you, dear girls, to go out to the garden or the forest, a little outside the city, or at least buy a twig at the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n