St Andrew's Day Tales and Traditions

How is St Andrew's Day celebrated around the world?

St Andrew’s Day is also celebrated in other countries across the world. Learn more about some of the St Andrew’s Day celebrations and traditions from across the globe.

ROMANIA

In Romania, it is a time for magic rituals to ward off evil spirits and purify the land and the people. The secret weapon is garlic, eaten on the night before St Andrew's Day at a communal meal either as whole cloves or in a sauce. Cloves of garlic are placed strategically beside doors, windows and chimneys.

UKRAINE

In Ukraine, St Andrew's Day is celebrated on 13 December with fortune-telling and parties where pancakes and pastries were traditionally used for games which were supposed to help girls find a husband. It was also a time for mischievous pranks such as putting a plough on a house roof or taking a gate off its hinges - all pre-Christian traditions connected with courtship and marriage.

GERMANY

German folklore advises single women who wish to marry to ask for St Andrew's help. The night before the 30th, if they sleep naked, they will see their future husbands in their dreams. Young women should also note the location of barking dogs on St Andrew's Eve, as their future husbands will come from that direction.

RELIGIOUS CELEBRATIONS

In churches all over Europe, the last day of November is a day to remember St Andrew. In Patras (the third largest city in Greece), the Cathedral of St Andrew, is packed with worshippers, who then spill out into the streets for a dramatic and colourful procession where the relics (housed in a silver shrine) and the icon (holy painting) of Saint Andrew are carried, accompanied by chants and prayers.

Further west in the Mediterranean, on the southwest coast of Italy, is the picturesque port of Amalfi. There, the Cathedral of Saint Andrew, glitters with gold mosaic. Inside, are the relics of the saint and his magnificent silver statue which is then carried out around the streets and squares of Amalfi to celebrate the Saint's day.

Today, the magnificent 18th century St Andrew's Cathedral in Kiev, with its white and pale blue walls, its green onion domes fringed with gold, stands where many earlier churches were built to commemorate the hilltop where St Andrew is believed to have put up the first Christian cross.

Many wooden churches were built there, destroyed by marauding armies or simply pulled down. Here the feast of St Andrew is still celebrated every year.

Learn more about the history of St Andrew

Find out more about who St Andrew was