Fathers' Day before Christmas (Oci)
4 January 2026 · movable holiday — Untie me, dear! Here are gifts from my pockets!
Oci is a Serbian folk holiday, the last of three family celebrations before Orthodox Christmas. They fall on three consecutive Sundays: Detinjci (Children's Day), Materice (Mothers' Day) and Oci (Fathers' Day). Oci is observed on the Sunday right before Christmas. The custom is playful: in the morning the children tie their father's legs with a rope or scarf, and he buys his freedom with gifts, sweets or small toys. Then the family shares a festive meal. The day highlights the importance of family in the run-up to Christmas. Serbian Christmas is on 7 January in the Gregorian calendar, which matches 25 December in the Julian one. Because it depends on the Sunday before that date, Oci is a movable holiday, and it falls between 31 December and 6 January, in the long winter nights shortly after the winter solstice.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of bright dots and fine lines, like a constellation drifting across the sky: a broad-shouldered, mustached father whose ankles are loosely bound with a scarf of tiny stars
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