Christmas Eve is the night before Jesus Christ is born. The table on Christmas Eve represents a magic for fertility and luck. The food on the table consists of dishes with rising food to pray for growing luck and fertility. The dishes are odd number - 7, 9 or 11. The dinner is "symbolic". All the dishes on the table are with the purpose of bringing: abundance - the ritual bread, sweet corn, popcorns, beans, apples and dried fruits; protection from diseases and evil - garlic; sweet life - the honey; health - walnuts, cornel twigs and ivy. On the table there should be only vegetarian food: stuffed cabbage leaves, rice stuffed peppers, beans, cabbage pastry, pumpkin pastry, boiled wheat. On the so-prepared table is placed the Virgin Mary's bread, fruits, walnuts, honey, grapes and quinces. The Virgin Mary's bread is ritual bread. It has the central place on the table and is made with a special ritual. It is kneaded by a young girl or a young married woman in festive costumes with a flower in their hair. There are three types of ritual bread: one for the holiday called Bogovitza, another one for the house and the farm and a third one for the carol singers. The ritual breads are decorated with relief patterns of a cross, a circle, a flower or a bow. This decoration is also symbolic: the cross stands for the God's power, the flower for juvenility, the bow symbolizes power against impure forces, ghosts and diseases.

The carol singers are groups of children from the age of 8 till 12. They go round the houses, hitting their thresholds with their cornel cudgels and blessing the homes. The hostess meets them with a sieve full of wheat, sprinkles them with the seeds and gives them ring-shaped buns. The carol singers bless the fireplace of the house where every good deed comes true. In the fireplace the hosts have placed a thick log - the Budnik. It symbolizes the abundance and its role is to connect the sky and the earth. The Budnik is left to burn throughout the whole night to make sure that the magic signs sent through the fire will come true. The ritual bread is broken up high above the head. The first morsel of the bread is for the house, the second for Virgin Mary after that for the members of the family.

People with the names of Evgeni and Evgenia celebrate their name's day on Christmas Eve.