3 Myths about storks
legends about them in the Balkan countries…
A lot of mystery surrounds these magnificent birds with long legs and necks, as well as a long and recognizable beak.
According to one legend, the stork was a human being. It was believed that he was a very pious man who went every year to worship the tomb of Christ. One day God decided to test his faith. He ordered him to climb a high mountain and to carry a chest on his back all the time, which he must not peek into.
He climbed like that and when he stopped to rest, curiosity forced him to open the chest. At the same moment, snakes, frogs and lizards jumped out of it.
Seeing that, God got angry and turned him into a family and said that he would become a man again only when he managed to collect them all and return them to the chest.
Since then, the family has been touring rivers and swamps every summer to catch all those who escaped from the coffin, and in the fall it goes on pilgrimages to worship the tomb of Christ.
According to another legend, storks spend some time like birds, and then turn into humans.
They live at the end of the world where women cannot give birth, so God has commanded them to come to women and raise their offspring as storks.
So one day a man decided to follow them and see where they lived. He followed them until they landed on a lake. They entered the water and turned into human beings. When he saw that, the man decided to stay with them all winter.
In the spring, they went to another lake and turned into storks again. When he entered the water, he immediately became a stork!
He returned home and built a nest on the roof of his house…
One day, his wife forgot the necklace at the fountain, and a man-genus stole it and hid it in his nest.
In the fall, he set off with his family. He entered the lake and immediately turned into a man, but this time he decided to return home.
As no one believed him that he lived with his relatives, he climbed on the roof and brought a necklace from the nest.
Only then did they believe that he had been with them all summer, but not as a man but as a stork .
A third legend says that storks and swallows are companions. Since swallows move south earlier — they land on the shore of the sea to wait for the storks, because without them they cannot fly over it.
While they are flying together like that, swallows get tired before they land on their homeland to gather strength.
In the spring, they return to their old nests.
It was believed that the one who sang and danced when he saw the storks, would be healthy and happy all year round.
According to folk beliefs, even the most venomous snakes are not able to defeat the storks.
It happened, say old people, that a snake divided an eagle, but a stork - never.
A house with a stork’s nest on the roof is considered protected.
It is a great sin to destroy a nest, break eggs or kill newly hatched storks and swallows.
It is good that, when people see a stork for the first time, they have money or bread in their pockets, in their hands… in order to be rich and full throughout the year.
To dream of a stork or a swallow is a good sign, and if a man dreams that he has caught a swallow, it will bring him a sure gain…
