FUN FACT: TRADITION OF UNMARRIED WOMEN AT CHRISTMAS.

In the Czech Republic, when Christmas Day arrives, a curious rite is carried out by some unmarried girls and that comes from an old popular superstition that has been performed for a very long time. Although this ceremony is originally and very common in the Czech Republic, we can also find that it is performed in other places that belonged, along with this Central European country, to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It consists of standing with her back to the front door of the place where she resides, taking off a shoe and throwing it over her shoulder without looking back. Then the young woman must turn around and check how it has fallen. If the toe of the shoe is facing the door, it means that within the next year she will be married. If, on the other hand, the shoe falls upside down or with the toe pointing the other way, this augurs one more year of bachelorhood.

Another rite performed by young women in the Czech Republic (in this case it makes no difference whether they are single or married) is to receive a kiss under the mistletoe. Those who are kissed, according to the superstition, will be guaranteed love for the following year. But for this to be effective, a couple of rules must be fulfilled: the first is that the mistletoe bouquet must not be bought by the woman who wishes to be kissed, but must have been given to her (no matter by whom); the second condition indicates that the kiss must never be requested but must catch her by surprise and when she least expects it.

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