A sparrow is a bird, which in the national notions inherent marriage symbolism, the symbolism of agility and agility and the motive of theft. In the ritual practice, a variety of amulets of crops are known to which Sparrows are harmful. In the southern Slavs, it was customary to break fast for Christmas with baked or dried Sparrows.
They break fast most often for the acquisition of the sparrow’s ease, liveliness and agility in the new year. Sometimes, before eating Sparrow, they touched the cattle, so that both cattle and those who do it were as light and agile as the Sparrow. The motif of the baked Sparrow is found in Croatian and Ukrainian comic and wedding songs.
The connection with the South Slavic custom of the sparrow furnace can be traced in the customs existing in the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, where they were caught by sparrow on New Year’s Eve and baked and cooked them, burned, thrown alive in the oven, threatened to bake the beak with the Sparrow. They did it for different purposes, most often in order that in summer the Sparrows would not eat in the field of the vein, hemp, etc.
Girls on New Year’s day wondered about marriage, throwing Sparrow in the oven: if he flies out of the fire, then the girl will “fly out” from the hut.
