Montenegro’s Ethnographic Museum in Cetinje preserves more than 4,000 objects connected with the material and spiritual culture of communities across the country, much of it dating from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Folk beliefs recorded in Montenegro are just as locally varied: customs documented in Risan or Grbalj may differ from those in Zeta, Kuči, the Bar area, Boka Kotorska, Mrkojevići, or the villages beneath Durmitor.
The collection here brings together approximately 70 documented Montenegrin superstitions, omens, protective practices, and folk beliefs. Many come from older ethnographic records and should not be assumed to describe every present-day household. Pregnancy, fertility, childhood development, illness, and birth outcomes mentioned in these traditions are cultural beliefs rather than medical explanations or reliable predictions.
Marriage, Fertility, and the Bride’s Departure
Grain for a Fertile Marriage
Older Montenegrin wedding practice included showering newlyweds with grain. The scattered seeds were associated with fertility, prosperity, health, and good fortune, turning an ordinary agricultural staple into a symbolic wish for the couple’s future household.
The Male Belt and Future Sons
Records from Risan and Grbalj describe a male belt used in fertility symbolism. In one version the bride was girded with it; in another she stepped over a belt at the threshold. The older expectation was that the act would favour the birth of sons.
The Nakonče at the Threshold
A bride entering the groom’s household could be handed a young boy known as the nakonče. Carrying him across the threshold was interpreted as a fertility rite intended to encourage male offspring, reflecting older patriarchal expectations rather than a biological influence on future children.
A Pomegranate Hidden in the Dowry
A pomegranate could be placed beneath clothing in a bride’s dowry. Its abundance of seeds made it a fertility symbol, with the fruit representing hopes for prosperity and numerous descendants in the new household.
Closed Scissors Beneath the Threshold
One older belief held that secretly placing closed scissors beneath a house or church threshold during a wedding could prevent the bride from having children. The scissors functioned symbolically as something capable of closing or cutting off fertility.
Locked Padlocks on the Groom’s Route
In a tradition recorded around Risan, locked padlocks placed along both sides of the groom’s route were feared as a form of harmful magic that could make him infertile. The closed lock carried the symbolic meaning of blocked reproductive ability.
Another Woman Must Not Touch the Bride
During the bride’s departure, a brother-in-law could guard her closely. An older recorded superstition warned that if another woman touched the bride at this stage, the marriage might remain childless.
The Bride Must Not Look Back
Several Montenegrin interpretations discouraged a bride from turning toward her parental home after leaving it. Depending on the account, looking back meant leaving her happiness behind, producing children resembling her birth family, or predicting an early return to her old home.
The Mother’s Kiss on the Throat
A mother could deliberately kiss her departing daughter on the neck or throat before marriage. The wedding record connects this gesture with an older belief that the soul resided in the throat, making the kiss a mark of enduring family belonging.
Sugar for a Sweet Married Life
Female relatives sometimes placed sugar cubes on the bride before she departed. The sweetness was transferred symbolically to the marriage, expressing the hope that life with her husband would likewise be pleasant and harmonious.
A Horse Through the Wheat Field
At a wedding recorded beneath Durmitor, a horse was led through a wheat field. The combination of a vigorous animal and fertile grain was understood as a sign that the newlyweds’ marriage would be fruitful and blessed with children.
Pregnancy Omens and Childbirth Beliefs
Trying to Favour the Birth of a Son
Older birth folklore recorded several unrelated practices thought to favour a boy, including sleeping on the right side, having the husband sleep in socks, and eating the crust of bread. These customs had no biological effect on a baby’s sex.
Household Objects Used to Predict a Baby’s Sex
Montenegrin ethnographic material records attempts to forecast a baby’s sex from objects as varied as a lamb’s shoulder blade, a chicken bone, a fish bladder, coffee grounds, and beans. Such methods belong to divination folklore, not reliable prenatal prediction.
Where the Baby First Moves
A local belief recorded in Berislavci in Zeta interpreted the mother’s location when she first felt fetal movement. Feeling it while outside the house was associated with a girl, while the same event indoors was interpreted as predicting a boy.
Milk and Needlework as Sex Omens
Pregnancy behaviour could be read as a prediction. In recorded folklore, developing a dislike of milk might be taken as a sign of a boy, while an unusual interest in needlework could be interpreted as pointing to a girl.
Dreams, Appearance, and Belly Shape
Other older predictions looked to dreams, the mother’s appearance, and the shape or position of her abdomen. Dreams involving weapons, changes in perceived beauty, or carrying the belly high or low were assigned different meanings about the baby’s sex. None is medically predictive.
Never Refuse Food to a Pregnant Woman
Some households considered it wrong to hide food or drink from a pregnant woman. One recorded interpretation claimed that a child could develop an aversion connected with whatever had been denied to the mother.
Cravings Could Leave a Birthmark
A familiar pregnancy belief connected an unfulfilled craving with birthmarks. If a pregnant woman wanted a particular food and then touched part of her body, folklore said the child might be born with a mark at the corresponding place. Birthmarks are not caused this way.
Seeing a Snake During Pregnancy
Older records warned pregnant women against seeing a snake because the encounter was thought capable of leaving spots or freckles on the baby. This is a symbolic folk association and gives no reason to harm or disturb snakes.
Stepping Over a Rope or Chain
A pregnant woman could be warned not to step over ropes or chains. Their winding shape was symbolically connected with the umbilical cord, leading to the belief that crossing one might cause the cord to wrap around the baby. Such complications have medical causes unrelated to this act.
Water From a Carried Vessel
Another recorded warning concerned giving a pregnant woman water directly from a vessel being carried. Folk interpretation connected the act with difficult labour, though drinking from such a container has no predictive connection with the course of childbirth.
Keep Labour Secret in the Bar Area
Around Bar, childbirth could be kept quiet for as long as possible. Older folklore held that the more people who knew a woman was in labour, the more difficult the birth might become. Modern childbirth requires appropriate medical support regardless of such beliefs.
Closed Doors During Birth in Kuči
In Kuči, an older account describes childbirth taking place behind closed doors with only a midwife or senior woman present. The closed space was partly protective: unwanted gazes and harmful supernatural forces were feared around the vulnerable mother and newborn.
Stepping Over the Woman in Difficult Labour
One historical ritual called for a divorced woman, described in the source as a puštenica, to step over a woman experiencing difficult labour. The symbolic act was intended to ease delivery. It is ethnographic history rather than a substitute for obstetric care.
A Husband’s Garment Beside the Mother
During difficult childbirth, some older practices placed an item of the husband’s clothing beside the labouring woman. Other families might turn to a religious icon. These protective acts joined household symbolism with folk-religious hopes for a safe delivery.
Infants, Names, Teeth, and Growing Up
Umbilical Cords in a Grbalj Dowry
In an older Grbalj fertility custom, preserved dried umbilical cords from a woman’s sons could later be placed with her daughter’s dowry clothing. The transferred objects were believed to help the daughter herself bear sons.
Seven Nights of Vigil After Birth
Neighbours and relatives could remain awake around a mother and newborn during the first seven nights. The vigil was not only social support: older belief held that witches or other harmful forces might approach if the pair were left unprotected.
Babine Visits Before Noon
Traditional postpartum visits known as babine were preferably made before noon in some accounts. Visiting while the day was still advancing carried positive symbolism, with the rising portion of the day associated with the child’s health and future progress.
Iron Near the Baby for Protection
Metal objects, including a horseshoe, could be kept near a newborn or the household hearth as protection from harmful supernatural influences. Iron has a long protective role in Balkan folklore, though the exact object and placement varied between families.
Baby Clothes Must Not Stay Outside Overnight
Infant clothing and cloths were sometimes brought indoors before nightfall. Leaving them outside after dark was feared because harmful magic might supposedly be worked through objects belonging to the child.
Keeping the Baby Inside for Forty Days
A newborn could be kept largely inside the home during the first forty days, a period treated as especially vulnerable in birth folklore. Protection from the evil eye was one explanation. Modern decisions about newborn outings should follow health needs rather than superstition.
Never Rock an Empty Cradle
Rocking an empty cradle was traditionally treated as something that should not be done. The prohibition survived into a modern variation in which some people avoid pushing an empty baby stroller, carrying an older cradle taboo into a newer object.
Do Not Step Over a Child
Stepping over a small child could be interpreted as interfering with growth. The traditional warning claimed that a child who was stepped over might stop growing, turning an everyday movement into a symbolic threat to development.
Disguising a Newborn’s Sex in Mrkojevići
In a striking custom recorded among the Mrkojevići, families that had previously lost infants might announce a newborn as the opposite sex. The deception was intended to confuse harmful supernatural forces and prevent them from recognizing the child.
A Godparent Found at the Crossroads
Kumstvo od nevolje, or godparenthood born of misfortune, could be sought when a family had repeatedly lost children. A mother might take the baby to a crossroads and ask the first suitable passer-by to become the child’s godparent, hoping to break the pattern of loss.
Baptism While the Day Is Growing
Morning could be preferred for a child’s baptism because the day was still rising rather than declining. Folk symbolism connected the growing daylight with the hope that the child would likewise grow, advance, and prosper.
Names Intended to Stop Misfortune
Names built from the verb meaning “to stop,” such as Stanko, Stojan, or Stana, could be chosen after repeated infant deaths or other unwanted family patterns. Names beginning with Živ-, connected with “life,” expressed the hope that a child would survive.
Vuk as a Protective Name
The name Vuk, meaning “wolf,” has a documented protective association in Montenegro and neighbouring South Slavic traditions. The wolf’s feared strength was symbolically borrowed for the child, with the name intended to intimidate witches or other hostile supernatural forces.
Hiding a Child’s True Name
Nicknames could serve a protective function when families feared that knowledge of a child’s real name gave witches or hostile people a way to harm the child. Concealing the formal name was therefore a form of verbal protection.
A Crossroads Haircut for a Sickly Child
For a child regarded as frequently ill, an older ritual could move the first haircut to a crossroads, where the first passer-by might become the haircut godparent. The cutting of the hair symbolized removing illness. It was a folk rite, not medical treatment.
White Gifts for the First Tooth
The person who first noticed a baby’s new tooth could give white clothing or socks so that the child’s teeth would remain white. Other recorded gestures included touching the tooth with a coin or water in hopes of healthy teeth.
The Lost Tooth Thrown to a Bird
A child’s first lost tooth could be thrown over the house and symbolically offered to a bird. The accompanying exchange asked the bird to take the weak “bone” and return something like iron, expressing a wish for a stronger replacement tooth.
Do Not Count Emerging Teeth
Counting a child’s teeth while they were erupting was discouraged in older folklore. The act was said to shorten the time the teeth would remain in place, giving simple counting an unwanted influence over dental health.
Palm Sunday Flower Water
For Cvijeti, or Palm Sunday, children could be washed with water in which spring flowers had rested overnight. The seasonal water was associated with health and beauty, joining the Christian calendar with older plant symbolism.
Counting Stars Brings Warts
Children could be warned not to count stars in the night sky. A recorded explanation claimed that counting them would cause warts to appear, a memorable prohibition that linked countless points of light with unwanted marks on the skin.
A Broom Could Stop a Child’s Growth
Striking a child with a broom was traditionally feared as something that could stop growth. Some accounts added a small counter-ritual if it happened accidentally. The belief should not be taken as a reason to strike children with any object.
Do Not Measure a Growing Child
Measuring a child could itself be treated as unlucky. Older belief associated the act with interfering in the child’s physical growth or general progress, so some families preferred to let development remain figuratively “unmeasured.”
Boka’s “Sack of Words”
A Boka Kotorska tradition for a child who had not begun speaking used Easter bells as the ritual moment. The mother carried the child around the house in a sack while relatives repeatedly asked what she carried; the symbolic answer was a “sack of words.” This historical rite is not a speech treatment.
The Evil Eye, Witches, and Protective Signs
Knocking on Wood or Stone After Praise
After admiring a healthy child, successful person, animal, or valued possession, some Montenegrins traditionally knock on wood or stone. Phrases such as Da zlo ne čuje (“so evil does not hear”), Ne bilo urok, or mašala are used to prevent praise from attracting misfortune.
Red and Mismatched Colours Against the Evil Eye
Red thread or clothing appears in older protective practice, especially around children. Another tactic deliberately used mismatched or contrasting colours, such as differently coloured socks, so the unusual appearance would divert an envious or harmful gaze.
Soot Marks as Regional Protection
Ethnographic records describe small soot markings placed on children against the evil eye. Placement varied: accounts mention the forehead in Kuči and different facial arrangements in Grbalj and Risan, showing how one protective idea acquired local forms.
Mocking Praise in Zeta
In Zeta, directly praising a beautiful or healthy child could be avoided for fear of the evil eye. An affectionate mock-insult comparing the child to an unattractive animal might be used instead, followed by words intended to cancel any harmful effect of admiration.
Yew as Protective Wood
Yew, tisovina, was attributed strong protective qualities in Montenegrin birth folklore. Pieces could be carried as amulets against spells and the evil eye. One account gave special value to yew watched over by three people from Christmas Eve until dawn.
Garlic in Protective Amulets
Garlic could be carried or incorporated into a child’s protective objects because its strong smell and older magical associations were thought to repel harmful forces. The practice belongs to folk protection rather than evidence-based prevention of illness.
The Red Caul, Witches, and Mora
Older Montenegrin folklore connected unusual birth signs with supernatural danger. A child born in a red or bloody caul could be associated with witchcraft, while the mora was imagined as a night-being capable of tormenting sleepers.
Do Not Name a Feared Being Directly
Some dangerous or supernatural beings could be referred to through substitute names rather than spoken of directly. A snake might be called nepomenica, “the one not to be mentioned,” while euphemistic names were also used for witches. Naming evil was feared to invite it closer.
Extinguishing Coals to Identify the Evil Eye
A divinatory practice known as gašenje ugljevlja involved dropping burning or hot coals into water while considering possible sources of an evil eye. The behaviour of the coals was then interpreted. Such rituals are folklore and should not replace medical evaluation when someone is ill.
Every Child Has a Lucky or Unlucky Star
One strand of birth folklore described people as entering life beneath a fortunate or unfortunate star. The star motif joined personal destiny with the night sky and could be used to explain later luck, hardship, or events believed to have been predetermined.
Death, Cemeteries, and the Boundary With the Afterlife
Do Not Bring Cemetery Misfortune Home
A modern ethnographic study records people washing their hands after returning from a cemetery even without physical contact there. Some also spit three times to the side and avoid returning by exactly the same route, actions intended to keep evil or bad luck from following them home.
A Health Wish After Mentioning the Dead
Comparing a living person with someone who has died can prompt an immediate protective wish for the living person’s health. The added phrase separates the living from the fate of the deceased and symbolically cancels any unlucky association created by the comparison.
Extra Clothes for the Afterlife
Some families have placed additional clothing, socks, or personal items in a coffin. One folk explanation is that the deceased may need a change of clothes in the afterlife, preserving a practical image of ordinary needs beyond death.
Dying Without a Candle
Within Orthodox folk practice, a wax candle may be lit for a dying or deceased person, its light carrying Christian religious meaning. Alongside that observance exists a folk belief that dying without a candle can be interpreted as a grave misfortune or curse.
Do Not Interrupt the Tužilica
The tužilica or narikača is a woman who performs ritual lamentation for the dead. Older generations preserved a warning against interrupting her once the lament had begun because stopping it could supposedly bring bad luck or even a curse upon the family.
Shattering a Glass When the Coffin Leaves
In a documented funeral practice, a glass could be shattered after the coffin was carried away, while the table that had held the body was turned on its side or upside down. The gestures symbolically marked the irreversible end of the person’s earthly life.
A Cat Must Not Jump Over the Dead
During čuvanje pokojnika, the vigil over a deceased person, one feared event was a cat jumping over the body. Folk belief warned that such an occurrence might cause the deceased to become a vampire, or povampiriti se.
The Soul’s Forty-Day Journey
A folk-religious belief recorded in Montenegro holds that the soul remains near its former home, place of death, or familiar places during the forty days following death before finally departing. The forty-day period also has a distinct place in Orthodox commemorative practice.
Do Not Jump Over a Grave
Within the same body of afterlife folklore, jumping over a grave was prohibited because it was feared that the act could contribute to the deceased becoming a vampire or werewolf-like revenant. The supernatural consequence belongs to folk tradition rather than verified experience.
Easter, Christmas, and Wine in Folk Belief
The Easter Čuvarkuća Egg
A widespread Montenegrin Easter custom keeps one specially coloured egg for an entire year. Known as the čuvarkuća, or “house guardian,” it is attributed protective qualities and is traditionally associated with guarding the household and its members from harm.
Washing With Wine on Christmas Day
The Montenegrin Academy’s lexicon of viticulture records that in many villages household members washed themselves with wine on the first day of Christmas. The purpose was symbolic: the wine was expected to help them remain healthy and rosy-cheeked.
Wine and the Life Force of Ancestors
Wine also entered Montenegrin mortuary belief. A recorded interpretation treated wine as capable of symbolically replacing blood and restoring life force to the souls of ancestors, linking viticulture with remembrance of the dead rather than ordinary drinking alone.
Why Montenegrin Place Names Matter in Folk Belief
Many of the clearest records are local rather than nationwide. Risan and Grbalj preserve particular marriage and fertility motifs; Zeta supplies its own evil-eye language and pregnancy divination; Kuči appears in childbirth protection; Boka Kotorska preserves distinctive child and family practices; Mrkojevići provide another form of newborn protection; and the Durmitor material gives a mountain wedding variation. Treating every one of these as something uniformly practised throughout Montenegro would erase the geographical detail preserved by ethnographers.
There is also a difference between religious observance, social custom, and supernatural interpretation. Easter eggs, baptism, candles for the dead, Christmas practices, and forty-day commemorations can have established Christian meanings while also acquiring additional folk explanations. Only the belief-bearing or magical interpretation is relevant here. Many older practices have weakened, changed form, or disappeared, particularly in urban settings and among younger generations.
📚 Roots of Belief
- National Museum of Montenegro — Ethnographic Museum — Describes the Ethnographic Museum’s collection of more than 4,000 objects illustrating material and spiritual culture from Montenegro, mostly from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (The National Museum of Montenegro is the country’s central museum institution.)
- Women’s Museum of Montenegro — Tatjana Rajković, “Vjerovanja i običaji u Crnoj Gori u vezi sa rođenjem” — Identifies Rajković’s ethnological study of birth-related beliefs and customs as a work published in the journal of the National Museum of Montenegro in Cetinje in 2007. The study records pregnancy omens, infant protection, the evil eye, naming, teeth, growth taboos, and regional birth customs. (A museum-based cultural archive preserving women’s and ethnographic history in Montenegro.)
- Traditiones — “Traditional and Contemporary Wedding Customs in Montenegro: Values and Identity Changes” — Documents the nakonče, pomegranate fertility symbolism, restrictions on the departing bride, sugar symbolism, the throat-kiss belief, and the Durmitor wheat-field rite, while distinguishing older customs from newer wedding practice. (Traditiones is a scholarly journal published through the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.)
- Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology — “About the Semantic and Pragmatic Typology of Names Giving Protection from ‘the Evil Eye’” — Examines protective personal names and specifically discusses the modern frequency and apotropaic interpretation of the name Vuk in Montenegro and Serbia. (A peer-reviewed ethnology and anthropology journal; the author is affiliated with the University of Montenegro.)
- Ethnographica et Folkloristica Carpathica — “Posthumous Culture of Montenegrins on a Timeline between Past and Present” — Records cemetery-return precautions, funeral candles, lamenters, belongings placed with the dead, shattered-glass symbolism, the cat-and-vampire belief, and forty-day afterlife traditions. (A scholarly cultural-anthropology journal hosted by the University of Debrecen.)
- Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts — Lexicon of Viticulture and Winemaking — Documents Christmas wine customs and the mortuary belief that wine could symbolically restore life force to ancestral souls, alongside other customary uses of wine in Montenegrin communities. (CANU is Montenegro’s national academy of sciences and arts.)
- Jelena Radulov — “Proslava Vaskrsa u Crnoj Gori” — Records Montenegrin Easter practices, including the custom of preserving the čuvarkuća egg for a year and attributing protective qualities to it. The study originally appeared in the journal of the National Museum of Montenegro. (A digitized ethnographic study based on Montenegrin museum and field material.)
- National Library of Montenegro — Bibliographic Record for “Proslava Vaskrsa u Crnoj Gori” — Confirms Jelena Radulov’s Easter study in Glasnik Narodnog muzeja Crne Gore, volume 11, 2015, pages 153–161, with its national bibliography record. (The National Library of Montenegro provides the country’s official bibliographic documentation.)