Today I would like to share a famous Croatian cultural dessert: the Licitar!
Licitars (Croatian: licitarska srca) are colorfully decorated biscuits made of sweet honey dough that are part of Croatia’s cultural heritage. They are a traditional symbol of the Croatian capital Zagreb. They are used as an ornamental gift, often given at celebrations of love such as weddings and Valentine’s Day. At Christmas time, the city of Zagreb and the Christmas tree in the main square in particular are festooned with thousands of licitar hearts.
The tradition of making and giving Licitars stretching as far back as the 16th century. Licitar makers, known as Medičari, were highly regarded in society, and their Licitars very much sought after (licitars were more sentimental than giving a bouquet of roses). Even today the tradition is kept alive by a select few who covet the art in family secrecy, and their methods of production have scarcely changed. Licitar bakeries in 7agora claim to have made the pastry using the same recipe for over 400 years! One Licitar still takes over a month to make. Although not a religious symbol, licitars were often bought to take home as a reminder of their long and sometimes arduous journey to Zagorje. Licitars' simple shape and attractive colour and decorations were a keen souvenir to show their families and neighbours when they came back.
Licitars are made using traditional ingredients, methods and devotion. Their ingredients are simple (honey, flour, eggs, water and natural colours) but their preparation is long. The dough matures for a few days, then is shaped and baked and left for two weeks to dry. Colouring is the next step after which they are left to dry again for two weeks. Once dry the licitars are finally decorated and again left to dry for a week.
Traditionally, Licitars are 100% handmade and usually decorated with a swirling outline, small flowers and sometimes a small mirror. Since they are made of honey dough and natural products, they can be edible before certain decorations are done.
In modern times, Licitars are traditional Croatian souvenirs (and can be found in all Croatian airports and in many tourist gift shops), Christmas tree decorations, wedding favours for guests, business gifts, many other ornamental purposes, and is still given as a way of showing your affection to the ones you love.
Love comes in all colors. #crogaytia
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49 Replies
9 Jul 2023, 18:07
Carking the 6th wrote:
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
Brando Dilla wrote:
Okay I think that’s enough.
Let’s not trash this otherwise-interesting thread.
Yes, 4 is good. I’m gonna need to read more about how these are made though. Interesting process.
Lucky for me there’s a Serbian/Croatian market in my city, about a 15 minute drive from my house. I’ll have to stop in sometime and see if they sell them.
Send pictures if you find them! My city seems to only have a Bulgarian store that I couldn’t even reach. Maybe an international market would have something but hopes are low of me ever seeing this desert in person… but I can push that job onto someone else!
What country do you live in?
“A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito
9 Jul 2023, 18:21
I knew this question would come up eventually… the old US of A. ‘Murica. Though I am from Jordan.
CarKing the 6th of the Abrahamic Caliphate
9 Jul 2023, 18:50
Carking the 6th wrote:
I knew this question would come up eventually… the old US of A. ‘Murica. Though I am from Jordan.
Wasn’t it called Trans-Jordan before?
“A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito
9 Jul 2023, 18:57
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
I knew this question would come up eventually… the old US of A. ‘Murica. Though I am from Jordan.
Wasn’t it called Trans-Jordan before?
Yeah. It wasn’t really a concept before this. The country is named after the river Jordan. Historically it was basically just part of the levant with Syria and Palestine (Lebanon was not a concept either) until Britain and France came to prance. We were promised the entire Arabian peninsula along with Iraq and the Levant to betray the Ottomans, and instead got divided up into the borders that caused everything that leads us to today.
CarKing the 6th of the Abrahamic Caliphate
9 Jul 2023, 18:58
Carking the 6th wrote:
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
I knew this question would come up eventually… the old US of A. ‘Murica. Though I am from Jordan.
Wasn’t it called Trans-Jordan before?
Yeah. It wasn’t really a concept before this. The country is named after the river Jordan. Historically it was basically just part of the levant with Syria and Palestine (Lebanon was not a concept either) until Britain and France came to prance. We were promised the entire Arabian peninsula along with Iraq and the Levant to betray the Ottomans, and instead got divided up into the borders that caused everything that leads us to today.
Those Brits sure screwed things up, didn’t they?
If it wasn’t for them, to Israel-Palestine conflict wouldn’t be happening.
“A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito
9 Jul 2023, 19:02 (edited)
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
I knew this question would come up eventually… the old US of A. ‘Murica. Though I am from Jordan.
Wasn’t it called Trans-Jordan before?
Yeah. It wasn’t really a concept before this. The country is named after the river Jordan. Historically it was basically just part of the levant with Syria and Palestine (Lebanon was not a concept either) until Britain and France came to prance. We were promised the entire Arabian peninsula along with Iraq and the Levant to betray the Ottomans, and instead got divided up into the borders that caused everything that leads us to today.
Those Brits sure screwed things up, didn’t they?
If it wasn’t for them, to Israel-Palestine conflict wouldn’t be happening.
Among their failure to mediate disputes between the Jews and Arabs was Also the terrible division of India, their treatment of Africans and terrible division of them, then being the cause for the civil war in Myanmar. Among other things. Literally everyone on Earth has a bone to pick with the British and/or French. Literally give me any country and I bet I can name something they caused that negatively effected that country. It’s very funny. But yeah I could rant about the British for a century, history is inane.
CarKing the 6th of the Abrahamic Caliphate
9 Jul 2023, 19:24
Paraguay.
“A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito
9 Jul 2023, 19:27
Well it was partly the UK’s shenanigans that weakened the Spanish empire the led to the situation that created Paraguay. And when Paraguay was decimated by its neighbors, who saved it? Not the UK, but the US. Not to mention British people meddling with the nations economies a bit, like they did with all Latin American nations to an extent.
CarKing the 6th of the Abrahamic Caliphate
9 Jul 2023, 19:29
Interesting
“A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito
9 Jul 2023, 19:30
Global empires have global influence. The British screwed over basically anyone at a certain point in time for that specific reason.
CarKing the 6th of the Abrahamic Caliphate
9 Jul 2023, 19:36
Brando Dilla wrote:
Can’t confirm this, but I’ve heard a rumor that during the time of the Ustaše, the Licitars were made with the blood of killed Serbs as the “frosting”.
That’s gross.
9 Jul 2023, 19:41
Baracuda12 wrote:
Brando Dilla wrote:
Can’t confirm this, but I’ve heard a rumor that during the time of the Ustaše, the Licitars were made with the blood of killed Serbs as the “frosting”.
That’s gross.
IKR
“A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito
10 Jul 2023, 13:16
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
Brando Dilla wrote:
Okay I think that’s enough.
Let’s not trash this otherwise-interesting thread.
Yes, 4 is good. I’m gonna need to read more about how these are made though. Interesting process.
Lucky for me there’s a Serbian/Croatian market in my city, about a 15 minute drive from my house. I’ll have to stop in sometime and see if they sell them.
Many Yugoslav people have Flocked to western Europe, especially the UK due to war.
The President
10 Jul 2023, 17:10
Claudio NVKP wrote:
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
Brando Dilla wrote:
Okay I think that’s enough.
Let’s not trash this otherwise-interesting thread.
Yes, 4 is good. I’m gonna need to read more about how these are made though. Interesting process.
Lucky for me there’s a Serbian/Croatian market in my city, about a 15 minute drive from my house. I’ll have to stop in sometime and see if they sell them.
Many Yugoslav people have Flocked to western Europe, especially the UK due to war.
Yes, to UK, Canada, Australia, NZ, US, Germany and other.
Some have come back now but not enough
“A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito
11 Jul 2023, 00:39
Yeah their populations have been falling and their useless governments blame their problems on each other while the people just try to make it by… very dark but they can turn it around still providing their governments get their shit together. But asking any government that has ever had power in the Balkans to be competent is a tall ask!
CarKing the 6th of the Abrahamic Caliphate
11 Jul 2023, 00:40
Carking the 6th wrote:
Yeah their populations have been falling and their useless governments blame their problems on each other while the people just try to make it by… very dark but they can turn it around still providing their governments get their shit together. But asking any government that has ever had power in the Balkans to be competent is a tall ask!
It's a shame... go to some parts of Serbia and you'll think you're in a third world country
“A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito
11 Jul 2023, 00:43
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
Yeah their populations have been falling and their useless governments blame their problems on each other while the people just try to make it by… very dark but they can turn it around still providing their governments get their shit together. But asking any government that has ever had power in the Balkans to be competent is a tall ask!
It's a shame... go to some parts of Serbia and you'll think you're in a third world country
This is with all of Eastern Europe. Cities like Belgrade, Sofia, Kyiv, Moscow. All marvels that beam with greatness… then the countryside looks like 1886 after some random war with the Ottomans…
CarKing the 6th of the Abrahamic Caliphate
11 Jul 2023, 00:55
Carking the 6th wrote:
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
Yeah their populations have been falling and their useless governments blame their problems on each other while the people just try to make it by… very dark but they can turn it around still providing their governments get their shit together. But asking any government that has ever had power in the Balkans to be competent is a tall ask!
It's a shame... go to some parts of Serbia and you'll think you're in a third world country
This is with all of Eastern Europe. Cities like Belgrade, Sofia, Kyiv, Moscow. All marvels that beam with greatness… then the countryside looks like 1886 after some random war with the Ottomans…
I was in Sofia once, and there were all these empty flats from the Cold War era, along with many vacant newer houses!
“A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito
11 Jul 2023, 00:59
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
Yeah their populations have been falling and their useless governments blame their problems on each other while the people just try to make it by… very dark but they can turn it around still providing their governments get their shit together. But asking any government that has ever had power in the Balkans to be competent is a tall ask!
It's a shame... go to some parts of Serbia and you'll think you're in a third world country
This is with all of Eastern Europe. Cities like Belgrade, Sofia, Kyiv, Moscow. All marvels that beam with greatness… then the countryside looks like 1886 after some random war with the Ottomans…
I was in Sofia once, and there were all these empty flats from the Cold War era, along with many vacant newer houses!
Oh yeah they all have their slums and commie blocs. The population decline doesn’t let them get filled. Still, the major cities can at least be called from an industrial century.
I once heard that commie blocs can be pretty nice if you renovate them and upgrade their utilities. Though I don’t actually know if that’s true.
CarKing the 6th of the Abrahamic Caliphate
11 Jul 2023, 01:11
Carking the 6th wrote:
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
Brando Dilla wrote:
Carking the 6th wrote:
Yeah their populations have been falling and their useless governments blame their problems on each other while the people just try to make it by… very dark but they can turn it around still providing their governments get their shit together. But asking any government that has ever had power in the Balkans to be competent is a tall ask!
It's a shame... go to some parts of Serbia and you'll think you're in a third world country
This is with all of Eastern Europe. Cities like Belgrade, Sofia, Kyiv, Moscow. All marvels that beam with greatness… then the countryside looks like 1886 after some random war with the Ottomans…
I was in Sofia once, and there were all these empty flats from the Cold War era, along with many vacant newer houses!
Oh yeah they all have their slums and commie blocs. The population decline doesn’t let them get filled. Still, the major cities can at least be called from an industrial century.
I once heard that commie blocs can be pretty nice if you renovate them and upgrade their utilities. Though I don’t actually know if that’s true.
I heard they do that a lot in Croatia... idk why but most of Serbia just builds newer houses and apartment/condo complexes.
“A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito
