Život v Cizine (was La Vie Expatriée)

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Feast of sv. Mikulas

In Czech, St. Nicholas is sv. Mikuláš. He does not visit children on Christmas Eve*, but rather on the night of December 5, the eve of his feast. Unlike his English-speaking counterpart, sv. Mikuláš is still a bishop who wears his miter and chasuble and carries a bishop's crook. He is also accompanied by a devil, who doles out coal or potatoes to bad children (or even threatens to carry them off in his sack), and by an angel, who gives sweets and toys to good children. After answering questions about his or her behavior the past year, the child is supposed to recite a poem or sing a song, I suppose to purchase forgiveness.

Mikuláš and his companions traditionally visit households with small children. There are also public celebrations at Staroměstské náměstí and Náměstí Míru.

These pictures were taken at the Náměstí Míru celebration:

Caledonian School was soliciting teachers to dress up one of the trio to visit classes for children; my schedule did not permit me to do so, however. One of my students observed, though, that dressing up as the devil is much more popular than dressing as the angel. Not (only) for the obvious reason, but because it's hard to reconcile the angel's filmy robes with the season!

*It's the Infant Jesus (Ježíšek) who delivers presents on Christmas Eve, and don't you forget it! Even the most vocal atheist in Prague seems to have no compunction about, or to perceive any contradiction in, identifying Ježíšek as the source of Christmas gifts.

Labels: Christmas, Mikulas, Prague

posted at 1:53 PM permalink  0 comments

Monday, December 24, 2007

Clubbing carp for Christmas

The traditional Christmas Eve dinner in the Czech Republic is carp, breaded and deep fried, served with potato salad. In anticipation of this dinner, fish mongers with tubs of live carp appear on street corners and plazas a few days before Christmas Eve, and people line up to buy their carp. I'm told that some Czechs take the carp home live and kill the fish themselves. Most people, though, let the fish mongers do the dirty deed. And so the fish sellers scoop a carp out of the tub and give it a few sharp whacks on the head with a mallet before beheading it. (People take the fish heads, too, since fish soup is also a traditional accompaniment to the dinner.)

I suppose that if one isn't vegetarian, it's just as well to be reminded of exactly what is entailed in the eating of fish or poultry or meat.

And every time I saw this transaction taking place, I was reminded of Tom Lehrer's Poisoning Pigeons in the Park:

Indeed, I'm sure that if Lehrer were Czech, he might have come up with something along the lines of Clubbing Carp for Christmas.

You can also buy carp filets at the supermarket, and indeed, I even saw some frozen breaded carp all ready for cooking, but very few of the Czechs with whom I've spoken admit to going that route.

Labels: carp, Christmas, Czech Republic, Lehrer, Prague

posted at 2:28 PM permalink  1 comments