At Christmas time I got to go with my roommate Terka to her home town of Karlovy Vary (which is about two hours west of Prague). It was such a wonderful time!
I was happy to be able to get to spend time with her family and participate in their traditional Czech-style celebration. For Czechs, the Christmas holiday is three days long with the main celebration occurring on "Christmas Eve".
On Christmas Eve morning we decorated the Christmas tree with Czech decorations which included home-made gingerbread and straw ornaments.
Christmas Eve day is usually spent cooking and cleaning for the big celebration, but Terka's mom had already done a lot of the preparation in advance so we were free to go on a hike in the beautiful snow-covered pine forest nearby! What fun and what beauty. It was a joy to get to be in the fresh-feeling nature and "get away from it all" after the hectic pre-Christmas season...I love feeling close to God the Creator amidst the peacefulness and tranquility of the tall pine forest. Those trees have been there for so many years and God sustained them throughout that time through all of the changing seasons, the trees were rooted and firm. Amazing. And we are as temporary as those trees here on earth, but God sustains us too! Wow. He is good, big, holy...He creates perfection and wonders to stand in awe over, to admire...He shows His power in the awesome beauty of His created world! I stand in awe of Him...
We got to join some friends and neighbors for caroling outside in the street nearby(we sang Czech koledy accompanied by a flute and a clarinet)when it got dark outside. It was a festive time with sparkelers and and refreshments and visiting with friends after the carols. Terka's young adult group from her church hosted the event. What fun to have neighbors who enjoy socializing and spending time with each other, just enjoying each others' company.
At dinner time we ate the traditional meal of fried carp fish, carp soup (with fish eggs), potato salad and Czech Christmas sweets that Terka's mother had prepared. Yum! I had been hearing so much about these traditional foods from my students in Prague during the weeks before Christmas...it was quite an experience to finally get to sample them after so much anticipation! Woohoo! :) Hehe!
I was glad to get to join in my roommate's family's gift exchange time (although it was a little different for me to open presents on Christmas Eve!)
Other enjoyable expereinces from this Christmas trip included:
-Sampling the natural spring water. Karlovy Vary is a popular Czech spa town. The water was between 40-60 *C and it has a high mineral content which is supposed to have healing properties, but which makes the water taste a bit sulfuric
-Going to a midnight Christmas concert
-Visiting Terka's grandparents on Christmas day and the following day. This visiting prolongs the Christmas celebration for the Czech people and makes it a three-day event! Both sets of grandparents served us a traditional meal of svickova which is dumplings, a special sauce, meat and a cranberry relish. Each cook prepares this dish differently and one grandma made it with rabbit! Her husband had traded his friend five pints of blueberries from their cottage for the rabbit in the summer time and they had saved it for the occasion
-Going to church on Christmas day
-Being immersed in the Czech language!
I praise God for this opporutunity to experience a Czech Christmas.
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