Chesnica (serbian christmas bread with coin)
Bread
For Serbs and several other Orthodox folks Christmas arrives on January 7 – our great nations never abandoned Julian calendar and as a result we are a little bit behind other Christians in celebrating the birth of Jesus. Christmas is my favorite Serbian holiday, mainly because of its deeply pagan nature rooted in the ancient rituals of the polytheistic Slavic tribes. Upon the conversion to Christianity, the tribes held strongly onto their old deities and many of the pagan customs found their way into Christian practices. As a result, Serbian Christmas is an endless fairytale of magic folk rituals and offerings, which culminate in the Christmas meal, the richest, the most decadent, the most significant and the most celebratory meal the family will have in the year. The centerpiece of the Christmas table is chesnica [chesnitsa] the ceremonial bread with a silver or gold coin hidden inside. In my family, for generations, chesnica was prepared with milk and butter and called for elaborate folding of the dough (very much like in making of the puff pastry), which results in almost croissant like texture and flavors. When I was little, my grandmother would secretly mark the bread with a sprig of basil flower to make sure that I always get the coin -- a practice my father brutally discontinued considering it un-educational. And although my winning streak ended a long time ago, the magic of this bread continues to this day.
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