Christmas is a holiday that surpasses the boundaries of religious worship thanks to its magical atmosphere and is almost universally acknowledged on a consumer, albeit more superficial, level. The rich, symbolic iconography of the celebration of the Nativity in the syncretism of cultures and civilizations boils down mainly to a flashy decoration competition. The quiet twinkling of the eternal stars of Bethlehem has been extinguished in the contemporary city skies anyway. Nevertheless, the contagious generalization of rituals and images is resisted by some signs of long duration, some customs that delineate certain zones; certainly, Christmas is still one of the elements of identifying each hometown. One might say that every house has its own Christmas: Christmas as a heritage.
The Christmas heritage of Croatia, especially northern and central Croatia, includes Licitar ornaments for Christmas trees. Licitars are preserved cookies made of sweet dough, in a wide variety of shapes, the favorite being a heart as a symbol and gift of love, followed by a child in its infancy – a gift for the birth of a child; horses, fir trees, birds, all kinds of animals, flowers, fruits, wreaths – gifts for joy. The iconography of Licitars has grown and modernized unexpectedly over time. Cookies are glazed in different colors: in the past it was primarily red, then yellow, green, blue – today the repertoire of colors and shades has expanded, and you can find anything from white to black. The basic shape is lavishly decorated with squeezed sweet mass, which is used to draw patterns, ribbons, flowers, dots, and wavy and crossed lines in white or contrasting colors. Mirrors are sometimes inserted into the finished shapes (folk variant for „flirtation mirror“), or printed face images of lovely girls and children. Licitars are made in molds that used to be wooden, but today are made of tin. Making these cookies, from small ones to large wall decorations, requires great skill and some family secrets. They were once, and still are at an increasingly rare primary level, picturesque fair products. At the secondary level, they acquired the status of valued, imaginatively designed local and national souvenirs. In 2010, they made it on the list of UNESCO's intangible world heritage. Their manufacturers, however, are becoming scarce, so this is a classic case of never knowing what you've got until it's gone. One of the centers of the still existing production is certainly Samobor, where you can see the most beautiful examples of these wonderful little works of art during the pre-holiday and holiday season in all town squares and fairs.
The origin of Licitars goes back deep into the Middle Ages, and it is particularly associated with Northern and Central European monasteries and their production of gingerbreads. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were famous small colored and decorated cookies styled by realistic templates. It is interesting that this was the period of Mannerism (in Northern Europe it lasted longer), the time of the metaphor culture, i.e. the culture of imitation: one material imitates another material, a small object imitates a large one and vice versa. We might say that Licitars are deep historical debris, much like the motif of the moretto (Croat. morčić) in jewelry or the Pag lace, which are also legacies of Mannerism and which survived in places where time moved more slowly.
On this year's Croatian postage stamp, dense evergreen branches and a few Licitars are shown. There are stars that fell from the sky, a star-flake that turned red in the warmth of the home, and finally small firs on a big fir. In Christmas iconography, along with the white color of snow, dark green and red prevail. Green is the color of sleeping forests, of things yet to awaken and come. Red is the color of the heart, life and joy. The color of promise and the color of fulfillment: both represent a Christmas heritage that the homeland has preserved.
Academician Željka Čorak
