Fortunate misadventures

Having been raised in the comforts of the city, it was hard to believe that I was partaking in a joyous holiday ritual. My friend Anca asked me to join her family in the backyard. Her slightly mischievous smile had me thinking that they didn’t expect me to feel particularly comfortable at what I was going to see.

The children were cheering as their parents were dragging the nervous pig from the stable. It is as though it knew that it was going to succumb to the blade. Try as I may, I couldn't hide my reaction. I never grew up knowing what my food actually looked like. I especially never had it staring back at me.

Her experienced father had the honour of slaying the animal since a false movement would result in a meat to robust to enjoy. There was an art to this and its failure of would ruin months of hard work.

Although the cutting of the pig fancies itself a Christmas tradition, it actually stretches back to much earlier times for the Romanian peasants. It was nothing less than a sacrifice to gods whose names are now long forgotten. Anca explained to me that in the rural areas of the country, Christmas as we know it in the west was a quite recent addition. The much cherished Saint Nick was initially celebrated earlier during the month. It seems that new traditions are quickly adopted amongst the old ones when it involves taking a day off from work to feast with your neighbours.

The slaying was swift and predictably messy and the ensuing enthusiasm with which the animal was butchered into more familiar cuts was rather disconcerting. All the while they would argue about which part was the best. Everyone present had a different opinion on this; I was later informed that this was strictly strategic. The tail is the piece they were fighting for. They were simply attempting to misinform each other so as to claim that much coveted morsel.

Sadly enough, this tradition is becoming increasingly rarer considering new EU hygiene regulations. What is lost here is not an archaic seasonal ritual, but a mode of communion amongst people. It is an event in which they reap the fruit of their work together. Perhaps they’d invite an unsuspecting city boy and have a laugh at his visible discomfort. I was glad to be their guest; it was indeed a delicious meal.