Bajerowanie, or ringing the bells from a church tower, baking Nowe Latko, and divinations – these were the customs once observed by the Warmians on New Year’s Eve. It was believed that with the arrival of the New Year, everything bad would come to an end.
As Jan Chłosta describes in his monograph of Warmia, New Year’s Eve and New Year customs and rites in old Warmia were exceptionally rich and deeply rooted in folk beliefs.
As early as the afternoon on the last day of the old year, young people would climb the church tower to set the bell in motion. The rope normally used for ringing was pulled up, and the clapper was rubbed against the bell’s shell, producing a booming, continuous sound. This activity was known as bajerowanie. In a similar way, the bell was also set in motion before the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord.
Housewives, meanwhile, set about preparing Nowe Latko – figurines made of flour and a little wine blessed on December 27, the feast of St. John, in church. The cookies took various shapes: the Three Kings, hearts, stars, horses, cows, sheep, chickens, geese, ears of grain, or trees.
The figurines were dried on the stove, and the next morning the figure resembling the Three Kings was hung on the wall. It remained there until the following year. At the first spring sowing, the ears of grain were crumbled by the sower into the sheet with the seed grain and sown onto the prepared field, while asking God to grant the most abundant harvest possible.
The remaining figures were added to the feed for horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs. A small piece of Nowe Latko was also placed into holes in trees, while saying the words “I give you Nowe Latko, and you give me fruit in return”. Fruit tree trunks were smeared with the dough and additionally wrapped with a rope of straw sprinkled with holy water. Crumbs of Nowe Latko were also put into beehives, with the words “I give you Nowe Latko, and you will give me honey in return”.
Before dusk, the farmer sprinkled the house, the farmyard, and the barn with holy water, asking God for protection from fire and other misfortunes. In devout Warmian homes, candles were lit and the rosary was prayed, also in memory of deceased relatives and acquaintances.
Housewives prepared a supper consisting of a thick porridge with cracklings or bacon bits, served with milk and sauerkraut. The porridge was a flour-based dish, round in shape with a hollow in the middle into which fat was poured. It was eaten from a single bowl, symbolizing the unity of the family.
On that day, grog and punch were also prepared. Numerous divinations were associated with St. Sylvester’s Day. Girls poured melted tin, lead, or wax into water and read predictions for the future from the shapes that formed. They also threw two pieces of charcoal into the water – if they drifted toward each other, it meant a wedding with the chosen suitor in the coming year. Oats were also thrown into a bowl of water; if the grains moved closer together, it foretold good fortune.
Young people were eager to play pranks. It sometimes happened that neighbors would place a cart or a garden gate on the roof of a barn, or stick a cart shaft into a chimney.
On New Year’s Eve, it was forbidden to wash or dry laundry, as well as to comb one’s hair – it was believed that doing so could cause chickens to destroy the spring crops. All borrowed items had to be returned. People avoided crossroads and did not cross the boundaries of the village, as evil was thought to lurk in such places.
It was also believed that if the first person to enter the house in the New Year was a man, the animals to be born on the farm would be male.