“Even before the leaves bud out, as the snow begins to thaw, one must invite–indeed coax–the spring to arrive. If one simply waited, Spring (being willful) might not choose to come, and then, with last year’s food bins already almost empty, one could not survive.

To bring the spring proactively, Russian mothers baked bird-shaped pastries in early March and their children clambered about setting these little larks and snipes out like duck decoys on the rooftops, fence posts, and snowless patches of ground, hanging them from trees and bushes or even tossing them into the air, meanwhile singing such songs as:


Larks, Larks, Give us Summer,

We’ll give you Winter–

There’s no food left for us”

–“The Dancing Goddesses” by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Nowadays, these pastry birds are associated with Easter in various parts of Central and Eastern Europe. I was delighted to find a picture of them in a book on the traditions of the Znojmo region of Moravia (where my great-grandparents are from) a couple years ago when I realize that the birds that I’ve been making were likely made by my babičky (grandmothers) as well.

Bird pastries baked in the Zjnomo region of Moravia

This year, however, I’ve been wanting to use what’s happening around me in nature, rather than boxes on a calendar, for my rituals to coax spring—and I’ve decided to release the birds on the old date (February 24) of St. Matthew’s feast day.

In folk tradition, Saint Matthew was associated with the arrival of early spring. In the Chod region and South Moravia, it was said that sparrows had a wedding on this day.

“On St. Matthew's Day, the human heart will warm, the sun will devour the snowdrifts, and the lark will sing over the field.”

Also, while February 23rd is my legal birthday, I was born at midnight and consider the 24th to be my spiritual birthday. What better time to begin my devotional new year rituals?

I AM NOT a great baker. I’m currently blaming this on my recent diagnosis of ADHD. I love the creative process of cooking, but baking requires a patience I haven’t always been capable of.

However, I stumbled on a fantastic Czech American recipe on St. Blaise’s Day, when I made buchty from My Czech Heritage Cookbook by LaVina Vanorny-Barcus. This was the most perfect, fluffy bread that I’ve ever managed to make without using a bread machine! The author’s grandmother used this recipe to make buchty, cinnamon rolls and kolache. So I thought, why not the bird pastries?

👏

Perfection!!

After letting the dough rise for half an hour, I divided it into 12 balls. I then rolled each of the balls into a 9-10 inch strand.

I then knotted the strand.

I used a fork to press the back of the knot into a tail.

I then used a slivered almond to form the beak and 2 cloves to form the eyes (when I release the birds into the wild I remove the cloves —after I take pictures 😜— to protect any wildlife that may eat them).

I then placed them on a tray near a space heater to rise for thirty minutes, and baked them for about 10 minutes at 375°F.