 According to Katarína Nádaská of the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at Comenius University in Bratislava, the traditional period for pig slaughters usually started on 21 December, the feast day of St. Thomas.There was a special magical importance attached to the date and farmers believed that the meat of a pig slaughtered on St. Thomas Day would last longer.A second traditional pig slaughtering period began around Mardi Gras.