• While seated at the table, look at the walls where the candlelight casts the shadows of those dining. If your shadow is large, wide and of the whole person, the year will be good, there will be no illness, everything will go well. If the shadow lacks a head a terrible calamity will occur; if it is skinny, unclear and wavering, the year will be difficult.
• Other predictions may be made while still at table. Three plates are used, a key is placed under one, a ring under the second and a coin under the third. The plates are mixed and one is chosen. The ring signifies love, marriage; the key means owning an apartment or house; while the coin indicates a prosperous year. A piece of paper is crumpled, placed on a plate or cutting board and its shadow examined. The first impression is decisive. If a form of transportation is seen, the person will travel a great deal next year; if a house or building, a move will be made to a new place; if a flower or other plant, a wedding will be held; if a cradle, a new family member will arrive; if a coffin or burning candle, death. Similar prognostications are performed by pouring melted wax into cold water and examining its shadow.
The country people believed that Christmas Eve night was miraculous: various omens and rituals could not only be used to predict the future but all of nature felt the significance of the night. At exactly midnight all animals were able to speak like humans. But to listen to their conversation was extremely dangerous because you could learn the day of your death. At precisely midnight all water turns into wine, you must simply hit the correct moment which is of very short duration. If the sky is clear on Christmas Eve night and full of stars, the year will be good. That night you must also pray before retiring else nightmares will trouble you all year.
• After dinner a girl sweeps the floor, pours the sweepings into her apron, takes them to a crossroads and tosses them out. Then she stands and listens from which side dogs are barking, from there she will get a husband.
• Sitting with her back to the door, a girl throws a shoe over her head: if the shoe lands with the toe toward the door she will leave home that year (marry, go to a distant school; a man will leave for the army, a faraway job, etc.). If the shoe heel faces the door, he or she will remain at home.
• All the shoes in the house are gathered together and placed in a pile, they are then lined up one behind the other to the door. The person whose shoe touches the door will be the first to leave home (some say, the first to die).
• To see the future, go into an empty room after the Christmas Eve supper, prop a mirror against the door, bend down and look at the mirror through your legs: you will see your future husband or wife.
• Take a full glass of water, a gold wedding band, a mirror and two candles. Place all the items on a white tablecloth. The wedding band is dropped into the glass, the candles are lit and placed on either side of the mirror. Sit in front of the mirror, take the ring out of the glass with your fingers and then drop it back in. Do this three times. The third time you remove the ring from the water, look through it into the mirror: you will see your future or the man you will marry.
• Drip several drops of wax from a blessed candle into a cold glass of water. Place the glass by your bed. That night you will dream about your future spouse.
• Take a bowlful of water and twelve pieces of paper written with men's names. Fold the papers over the bowl's rim so that one half hangs over the water. Place a piece of candle into a sliver of potato or turnip, light it and float it on the water. Stir the water with a finger to cause the candle to float around. The paper at which it stops or which it sets on fire indicates your husband's name. Questions about the coming year can also be written on the pieces of paper, but the answer can only be "yes" or "no". The paper which the candle lights or at which it stops means that those things will come true.
• The simplest form of fortunetelling is to count in twos. Dry slizikai, matches, peas, firewood by the hearth, candy or anything else can be counted. If it comes out in pairs, a wedding will take place next year.
Let your Christmas Eve be meaningful and peaceful!
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