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Happy Holidays

Vera

In the Czech Republic, our main Christmas celebration is tomorrow, on 24th December, Christmas Eve.

My family starts the day with some light breakfast, for lunch, we have ‘kuba‘ – a meal made out of mushrooms, groats and garlic. We then go for a long walk, which we finish visiting a cemetery to light up candles for those, who are still in our hearts but no longer with us.

Our main food of the day is Christmas dinner, which usually consists of some fish soup, which I absolutely hated as a child πŸ™ˆ, a fried carp and some yummy potato salad.

Carp is a traditional Czech Christmas meal, which symbolises Christianity.

We open presents after dinner. After we hear a bell ring coming from the living room. That’s to let us know that JeΕΎΓ­Ε‘ek (baby Jesus) has visited and left us something underneath the Christmas tree.

I still remember that sense of wonder when I saw the decorated Christmas tree. My parents would decorate it the day before Christmas Eve, lock up the room and let us, kids, see it for the very first time after the Christmas dinner.

There was something magical in those sprinkling lights reflected in glass baubles. I absolutely loved it. That sense of surprise mixed with anticipation. Feeling giddy with excitement. It’s one of my favourite memories I cherish dearly.

Regardless if you celebrate Christmas or not, I wish you all a very peaceful holiday full of wonderful moments we people you care about.

Happy Holidays my friends. ❀️❀️❀️

Published by Vera

35 thoughts on “Happy Holidays”

  4. It’s so interesting to hear your customs. I think ours are slightly different though. Everyone is setting up decorated Christmas trees from December 7 onwards (on December 6 there’s another festive thing and it’s not done to refer to Santa Claus before the other one ‘Sinterklaas’ has left). I don’t think fish is really a lot on the menu here, more meat like roast beef. I love that you go the cemetary and light up candles, even if we remember our loved ones, it’s mosty in our thoughts but not shared or with any kind of moment. It’s so nice you do this though. Merry Christmas to you!!

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    1. Thank you Inge for sharing that with me. I love getting to know more about different traditions.

      On 6 December, MikulΓ‘Ε‘ wonders around Czech streets – he is usually accompanied by čerti (demons / Krampus) as well as angels. He brings children little presents if they have been nice and little pieces of coal if they have been naughty. It’s usually a bit of both. 😊

      Have a wonderful Christmas. πŸ’•

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      1. Ah I didn’t know you celebrated 6 December too.. Mikulas must be the same as Sinterklaas (it sounds alike doesn’t it), he comes from Spain, travels with his white horse on the roof that night with his black helpers and brings presents for good children too (no pieces of coal though)!

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        1. I also think these two must be related. πŸ™‚ The legend has it that ‘our’ Mikulas represents Saint Nicholas of Myra, who died on 6th December.
          I love your story that he comes from Spain and travels with his white horse, that is so cool!
          Happy Holidays Inge. ❀️

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  6. Well, I never knew about the fish, but that makes sense, because of all the carp ponds! And I love your traditions and finding out about how you celebrate, Vera. We don’t have fish, but meat pie here, but yes, give out presents tonight, around the tree. tomorrow we have a sit down dinner.

    Merry Christmas to you and James, and all your family! ❀️

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      1. Ha! Ha! We are, thank you, Vera. And I hope you’re have a wonderful day today. I’m sneaking some blog time while we wait for family to arrive, then it will be noisy chaos. Love to you both, β€οΈπŸŽ„β„οΈβ›„οΈ

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  9. I love this post so much! Thank you for describing all these traditional foods and aspects of a Czech Christmas — I don’t know much about Czech culture in general so this post was fascinating to read about. 😊 I do have a question though — for kuba, you’d mentioned it’s made out of garlic, groats, and mushrooms. Would you mind telling me what groats are?

    I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! ❄️

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    1. Thank you Zoie for stopping by. I’m so happy you enjoyed learning a little bit about Czech traditions. Your comment made me so happy. πŸ™‚

      Groats are are the hulled kernels of grains – oat, rye, wheat, barley etc. My mum usually soaks them up for a while before cooking them as they can be a bit hard to chew. They can be quite ‘nutty’ in flavour and work really well with garlicky wild mushrooms. My dad would make porridge out of them sometimes as well when I was younger.

      I had a great Christmas, thank you. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well. πŸ™‚ ❀️

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        1. Czech cuisine is quite similar to German one – think sauces, meat and dumplings. It can be quite a rich cuisine so beware. πŸ™‚

          If you go to that Czech restaurant, I would try “VepΕ™o knedlo zelo” – it’s our traditional dish – pork loin roasted in onion and caraway gravy and served over sauerkraut with a side of bread dumplings. Fingers crossed you enjoy it. πŸ™‚

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          1. Bread dumplings and sauerkraut? VepΕ™o knedlo zelo sounds unlike anything I’ve ever tried before… now I’m really excited! πŸ˜† I’m going to have to write that down because I probably won’t remember the dish name off the top of my head. Thank you for the recommendation! 😊

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  10. I hope you had an amazing Christmas. <3<3 I love this post because I love you describing all your traditions, which are so different than ours! What an awesome day and super exciting. I'm not sure how I would feel about the fish soup either. πŸ™‚

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  13. Hope you had an excellent holiday, and it was nice hearing about your traditions. It does sound magical to have the tree revealed that way! It reminds me of something we used to do when I was little, we would light luminaries or lighted candles in bags of sand and line the roadway with them- it was beautiful at night with snow gently falling. Such a wonderful time of year! πŸ™‚

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    1. Your story sounds magical Greg, it must have been so beautiful coming home and seeing the roadway. Thanks for sharing it, I really love the sound of it.

      I had great holiday, thank you. Hope you had wonderful holiday as well.

      Thank you for your lovely message and for stopping by.

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