Legs of the chairs at the table are often bound one to another so that family members will be as close as possible and somehow will remain that way the following year. The believer knows that the first person to leave the table will also be the first to die in the new year. Death in the new year is also presaged in another tradition involving nuts. Each family member is given a half of a nutshell with a small candle inside. The candle is lit and the shell is placed in a water basin.
Someone then nudges the basin.
Shells which capsize and send their contents to the watery basin bottom signal death for their designated family member. Nutshells which stray toward the center of the basin but don't overturn signify that the family member shall leave the household the next year. The fates of young Czech women are likewise determined in a few perennial Christmas superstitions. One says that if a woman is given branches cut from a cherry tree on Dec. 4th and the branches bloom by the 24th, she is sure to marry the following year. Another similar practice has a woman throw a shoe over her shoulder toward the front door.