St. Barbara’s Day

Today is another one of “those” holidays during Advent season that I am not familiar with.

As the story goes, Barbara was the daughter of a rich merchant, Dioscuros, in what is present day Turkey. Dioscuros decided to lock Barbara in a tower with only 2 windows while he took a journey, in order to protect Barbara’s ”innocence”. During his absence, the tower now showed 3 windows. Many saw it as a sign of a miracle as the third window was seen to symbolize the sign of the Holy Trinity; Barbara was baptized by a priest during her father’s absence.

As the legend continues, this was all done without Dioscuros’s consent; thus, Barbara was accused, tortured, and condemned to death. As a branch of a cherry tree had gotten caught in Barbara’s dress when she was locked in the dungeon awaiting her execution, Barbara watered it with the water from her drinking cup. On the day of her execution which the angry father had personally made (in the winter of 306), the branch bloomed.

From this story comes the notion of "Barbarazweig," the custom of bringing branches into the house on December 4th to bloom on Christmas. In some areas of Germany, St. Barbara's is also the day to bake Kletzenbrot (a fruit cake).

For those interested in trying their hands at forcing flowering branches to bloom indoors, some helpful hints:

(1) If outdoor temperatures have been around 32 to 40 F for six weeks, most buds are ready for forcing. Apple, chestnut, cherry, lilac and jasmine branches are well suited for this.

(2) Cut stems on a mild, non-freezing day. Look for branches with swollen buds.

(3) Mash the ends of the branches and put the branches in a bathtub of cool, not icy, water for several hours. Leave branches for a few days in a cool place.

(4) As soon as the buds appear to swell bring them into a warm room, but not too close to a heat source.

(5) Spray the branch from time to time with lukewarm water, and when the bloom buds appear, place them on a window sill for they need a lot of light and cool air, thus ensuring the blooms will stay fresh longer.

(6) Change water every two days.

(7) Note: Thin branches force quicker than thick ones; the flowers should appear anywhere from one to five weeks later.