On St. Andrew's Feast Day (which began at sundown today [November 30] on the Church calendar), Romanians sprinkle wheat grains on tufts of cotton and water them. The successful sprouting of the grains during the days leading up to the Nativity is viewed as a portent of the year to come.
Yes, it borders a bit on the superstitious. But it's a delightful tradition!
Here are our plates for this year. We used Holy Water we brought back from a trip to Israel (not strictly necessary by, hey, we'll take all the help we can get). Between the plates is an icon of St. Andrew that I touched to his skull at Patras in Greece.
Here I am kissing and venerating his relics at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Patras in 2011.
Pray for us, O Glorious Saint Andrew!
Bonus: Here's a video I made today about why Saint Andrew is so important to me and also my theory that Andrew was not his original name:
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