I was in the Serbian town of Valjevo the other day. My eye caught on some birch bark. I don't know about you, but this was the first time in my life I'd ever seen birch bark being sold like this on the street. Being sold at all, for that matter. I got really curious about what it's used for. It's not like you write on it.

I looked into it. Turns out that in western Serbia (and some parts of Bosnia) there's an old and good pagan Orthodox tradition called lilanje.

In honor of the Slavic god of fire SvarogSaint Peter, children burn birch bark on the night of July 11-12. The ancient Serbs believed that this ritual would scare off all demons and witches and protect people, animals, and crops.

In Loznica they hold a big annual festival. In fact, it's happening this evening. Unfortunately, I won't make it there this year. But I found a YouTube video of what it looks like. Pretty interesting.

Sellers complain that they have fewer customers every year. And environmentalists are concerned that stripping the bark doesn't help the trees. Wild cherry trees especially get hit the hardest.