Slovenians have their own special day to mark the arrival of spring. On St Gregory Day, 12 March, birds are joined in wedlock, and on the eve of this day the victory of light over darkness is celebrated in keeping with an old custom.

Every year children in several towns across the country gather along streams and rivers to send candle-lit miniature boats or houses they have made themselves or with the help of their parents or teachers downstream in a symbolic gesture of throwing light into water.

In the early 20th century, towns with a long-standing tradition of crafts and trades such as Tržič, Kropa, Kamna Gorica and Železniki in the northwest of the country believed that St Gregory "tosses the lamp into the water" as the day becomes longer and artificial light is no longer needed in workshops.

Initially, they would throw pieces of wood with burning shavings or lit resin and later candles into brooks. During the two world wars children and youth took up the custom, letting wooden or paper floats with lit candles into the water.

The custom was revived in Gorenjska in the 1970s with the help of tourism associations, the regional museum and schools. It has been kept alive since, spreading to other parts of the country.

Although spring arrived early this year, the weather turned sour and rainy in the week leading up to St Gregory Day. In some places such as Ljubljana events featuring the miniature floats called gregorčki had to be cancelled as a precaution because of the swollen rivers.

But towns in Gorenjska stuck to the tradition despite the bad weather. In Tržič, a town in the north known for its shoemaking tradition, firefighters jumped in to place the candle-lit floats safely into the gushing Tržiška Bistrica in the culmination of an event that also featured a brass band, children's choir and a torchlight procession.

St Gregory Day is named after a 6th century monk who became pope. He is known for many acts of kindness and remembered as the patron saint of schoolchildren and scholars.

His name day was originally was celebrated on the first day of spring, but as the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582, it was pushed ten days back, to 12 March.

The old saying goes that birds are joined in wedlock on this day, which makes St Gregory Day the Slovenian version of Valentine's Day. According to an old custom, young women would look up at the sky on this day and the first bird they saw would indicate what kind of husband they will marry.

Bojan Knific, the author of a book on St Gregory's Day, says that in pre-Christian times, certain rituals were performed at crucial moments of the year to prevent chaos and restore order, which also goes for the custom of gregorčki.

In Slavic mythology the creator god Perun and the god of the underworld Veles confronted each other at the time of the vernal equinox. "The symbolism of fire and water brings exactly that - fire goes into water, higher and lower powers unite," he told the Slovenian Press Agency.