In Slavic traditions, a Polaznik is the first guest (sometimes called the "divine guest") who comes to a house at Christmas or on some holiday between St. Demetrius day and Epiphany to bring luck, prosperity, health, and wealth for the coming year. Less frequently, the role of the polaznik is taken over by an animal, which is brought into the house, which is also supposed to bring luck. The ritual is known mainly to Ukrainians, Poles, Slovaks, Slovenes, Serbs, Croats, and Bulgarians. It is believed that the polaznik is a messenger of the ancestors, which connects the world of the living and the dead.
Regional customs
Poland
In Poland, polaznik visited homes and gave residents green twigs decorated with tissue paper, called podłaźniczka. Podlaznik also wished the residents well. This bypass custom was called połazy or podłazy. In Cieszyn Silesia second day of holidays is called podłazy. In southern Poland polaznik used to come on St. Stephen's Day. Priests often forbade podłazy during Christmas. Men who came to visit relatives and neighbors sprinkled oats on the house and all those present, wishing them.
Slovakia
In Slovakia, the visit of a polaznik in the home is a form of koledari. The arrival of young, healthy children with green fir branches means that the person who sent them on St. Thomas' Day (December 21) wishes the household members to be happy, healthy, and young as children. At the same time, the elderly and sick polazniki were feared, as it was supposed to herald death and illness. In Slovak villages, it was forbidden for women to be polaznik because it was believed to bring bad luck. In central Slovakia, the polaznik came to the house with a green branch, which he stuck behind the ceiling beam to make the bread and flax grow as high as possible. The first guest who entered the house on Christmas Day was given bread so that the cattle could graze well in the summer. In the Zvolen region, also winemakers were polazniki.
The shepherd could also be a polaznik who came on the first day of the New Year with two branches – spruce and birch. Then he flogged the household members with the branches, which was supposed to bring them health. The homeowners kept these twigs until spring, until they first drove their cattle to pasture.
Moravian Slovakia
In the Moravian Slovakia region of the Czech Republic, the most coveted polaznik was a boy or a small animal. Wishes were made in the form of poems (polazné vinše). It was believed that a substitute must come to the house from the opposite direction in which the river flows (from the bottom to the top, against the current), otherwise the household members would "fly down like water". It was believed that the appearance of a boy-polaznik foretold the birth of a bull, and a girl-polaznik foretold the birth of a heifer. The polaznik was given specially baked bread in the shape of a cow, duck, or bird.
Lemkos
Lemkos used to call the host the polaznik, who, returning from the river, brought home a sheaf of oat straw (didok) and a bundle of hay and put them in the corner of the house; to the hostess's question, "Where are you from, Polaznik?", he replied: "From the cheerful, from the bright, from the good and from the happy."
Serbia
In Serbia, the polaznik was not chosen, but was the first person to cross the threshold of the house on Christmas Day. The polaznik and the host exchanged greetings, and then the polaznik was planted by the hearth. He would move a log (badnjak) in the hearth to bring good luck to the house (in the Šumadija area), then hit the coals with the twigs he brought with him, and at the same time he would say a wishing formula – he wishes the household as many sheep, money, family, and livestock as the sparks caused by the twigs. The hosts put a white, woolen rug on the polaznik, then he was supposed to sit on the stool, but at the last moment the hostess took the stool and the substrate fell to the floor. This was to kill all the birds of prey or, according to other versions, make the house fortunate. Sometimes a shoe was hung on the pole from the right foot of the polaznik, which was supposed to make the hemp grow high.