I'm not sure if you remember, but many moons ago I said that I would write about Christmas in the Czech Republic. However, a few less moons ago I found myself on a Delta flight across the Atlantic with an end destination of Albuquerque, New Mexico; a story for another time. This being said, my Czech Christmas only spanned November 11th (yes, this is when many of the decorations went up) to December 21st. I was able to get a pretty good idea of some of the Christmas environment and traditions here before departure though...
Malls and shopping centers tossed decorations up as early as November 11th here. This photo is a photo of the inside of Nový Smichov, a huge shopping center in Prague 5.
Starting in late November and early December the "Christmas stands" and Christmas markets started popping up in the streets. These stands are your one-stop shops for everything you could ever need for the season. They sell everything from gold and silver painted mistletoe to every size of Christmas tree imaginable. Stands and markets can be found all over town in any public space. There is one 'main' Christmas market in Staré Město (Old Town), but this is considered very touristy and a little more expensive. However, this makes it no less impressive, and it is always worth a trip to see the gigantic Christmas tree. This year's was at least 50ft tall, taking up an epic portion of the square.
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| Lady in the tram with her mistletoe in hand |
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| A Christmas stand outside Nový Smichov |
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| Christmas tree in Old Town |
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| Christmas market in Anděl, the district of Prague in which Nový Smichov is located |
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| Christmas stand (notice the painted mistletoe) outside of the Hůrka metro station. This is an area that I have an English lesson in |
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| To the chagrin of many of my Czech friends, Santa Claus has made it to the country |
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| Christmas stand on Náměstí Míru (Square of Peace) |
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| You can see the arbitrary location of Christmas stands |
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| A bag of scrumptious homemade Christmas cookies that one of my students was kind enough to bestow upon me. (I was ordered to take them back to the U.S. with me and share with my family. I can't say the cookies arrived in one piece, but their taste was complete.) |
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| This is a free Christmas concert that was being given in the Hlavní Náddraží (main stration) |
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| The Náměstí Míru Christmas market...just a couple blocks down the street from my house at the time. Náměstí Míru was my main metro station start point for teaching travels |
- Christmas Day in December 24th in the Czech Republic, not the 25th as it is in the U.S. Christmas consists of three main days: 24th-26th.
- The traditional Christmas meal is carp and you can find fishmongers at all Christmas markets and street corners with tubs of live carp starting around Dec. 20th
- The Czechs do not have Santa Claus, but Ježíšek (baby Jesus) delivers the Christmas presents during the meal on the 24th
- During the Christmas meal all eaters must stay seated once they have sat down, as it is considered bad luck to leave the table (I have found bad luck to mean anything from bad health to death)
- After dinner children will often melt lead ingots and then poor them into water. The shapes can reveal some hint about the future if you look hard enough and are able to find something
- The arrival of Ježíšek is signaled by the ringing of a bell and a parent encouraging the children to hurry and look, the baby Jesus is about to escape! The children never seem to quite reach the room in time to catch a glimpse of the little trickster
- Walnuts are often halved and then set with a candle. They are then placed in a bowl of water. Each family member has one of these 'ships' and their movements tell something of what the coming year holds for the family and its various members
- It is common to fast Christmas day before the main dinner meal. The goal is to see a golden pig, which brings good luck. If you fail to see the golden pig it is, of course, bad luck or death the coming year
A couple New Year's traditions:
- One must eat plenty of lentils on New Year's day, as they represent money/wealth. The more lentils, the more money. Needless to say, bowls are better to count in
- One mustn't eat poultry on New Year's, as anything consumed with wings will cause your luck to fly away
After returning to Prague on the 6th of January I was met with a sad, sad sight: the death of Christmas. All through the streets you could find poor little Christmas trees whose time was up...really driving home the fact that the holiday was over...
