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Published: January 21st 2010
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And A Happy New Year
For Christmas I celebrated both a Canadian and Czech christmas right here in Ireland. Luckily the Czech christmas is on the 24th so the timing worked out well so that we could celebrate eachothers traditions. So lets get started with the festivities...
CZECH CHRISTMAS...
In Czech the holiday season begins on St. Nicholas Day. On this day, the family will take a shoe and clean it up and leave it by the window for little gifts from St.Nicholas. In the evening St. Nicholas will come to the door with an angel and some devils. He will ask the children if they have been good. Apparently, this is a pretty tramatic experience for the kids because the devils look reallly scary. Maybe the shoe being left out to be filled with presents is where we get our christmas stockings from?!?!?!
The next big day in the holiday season is the christmas celebration on December 24th. On this day, you are supposed to refrain from eating until the christmas dinner. Any one who is able to do this will see some sort of golden pig?!?!? I didn't see one. At
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Christmas Dinner dinner you are supposed to set an extra place setting in case a random person needs somewhere to eat on christmas and once you sit down to eat you are not allowed to get back up until the christmas dinner is over or we will all have bad luck. On the 24th Monika made the czech christmas dinner and we set an extra seat for the potential random stranger and then we all sat down together to eat. We had fish soup, fish, chicken, and potatoe salad.
When we finished eating Milan got up and went to open the balcony door so that Jezisek (their version of santa claus) can get in and drop off the presents under the tree. The interesting thing about Jezisek is that there is no one specific image of what he looks like because no one has ever seen him/her, every child is left to their own imagination to create what Jezisek looks like. Monika said she always thought that he was like a tree person. Once Jezisek drops off the presents the mom or dad rings a bell to let the kids know that jezisek has come and gone and they can go
see their presents. Because I was the youngest person in our flat I was the one who had to go and distribute everyone's presents from under the tree. I gave everyone their presents and the unwrapping began. I got a book about ireland, a fiction novel by an irish author, some new lotion, and a pretty bracelet.
After the presents were done we watched Home Alone and then went to bed in preparation for Canadian christmas.
On Christmas morning (25th) I got up early and filled Monika and Milan's stockings. On my way back to my bedroom I put on some reindeer antlers and a rudolph nose and jumped up and down outside of Monika/Milan's bedroom (because my antlers had bells that jingled when I jumped) until Monika woke up and yelled "OMG MILAN WAKE UP WAKE UP!". And then I ran back to my bedroom and jumped into bed and waited. I heard Monika and Milan talking saying "lets get up... quick lets see what is in our stocking". They opened their stockings and then they wanted to wear the rudolph antlers and nose. After, I began the preparations for the christmas dinner that I was cooking
up.
I cooked a Ham, Chicken, stuffing, butternut squash, cranberry sauce, potatoes and carrots, and dinner rolls. Edilson, Carol, and Brendan joined Monika, Milan,and myself for dinner. We opened our christmas crackers and donned our crowns and dug into the meal. After we finished dinner I went with Edilson, Carol, and Brendan back to their house for a party. Their house was so full of people so I stayed for a couple hours and then made my way back home.
I definitely have learned that Christmas is just not the same as when you are with family. I love my friends that I have made here and was so happy that I was able to share the holidays with them but it's just not the same.
Some of the other Christmas traditions that I have learned about are:
IRISH TRADITIONS:
It is easy to assume that Christmas is a big deal in Ireland with all of the Catholics running around. Christmas is certainly the important holiday around here with New Years barely being recognized. On christmas eve a candle is lit and placed in a window to welcome any carpenters with pregnant wives and donkeys
in tow that may happen upon your home in need of a place to stay. Apparently, the candle is supposed to be lit by the youngest member of the family and snuffed out by someone named mary. I have also learned that the song "12 Days of Christmas" is believed to have originated in Ireland and was used as a way for Catholics to pass on the bases of the faith to younger generations, when they were not allowed to practice under the protestant rule.
In Gaelic Merry Christmas is "Nollaig Shona Duit" pronounced null-ig hun-a dit. In Ireland the Holiday season begins on Christmas eve and goes on for the 12 days of christmas until Jan 6. when the arrival of the three wise men is celebrated. On this day is when all the decorations must be removed. Traditionally, on this day the women are supposed to have a day off after all of their cooking for the last 12 days and the men are mean't to do everything. But sadly, for the women, this traditions seems to be disappearing.
Another celebration during the 12 days is the feast of St.Stephen on the 26th. On this day
the wren boys dress up and run through the streets to catch a wren. Now a days they don't actually catch and kill a wren but only have a small parade to collect money.
I think that covers Christmas...
NEW YEARS
In Czech on New Years eve you are supposed to eat lentils to bring good fortune in the coming year. You are also supposed to put money under a basket of fruit to increase your wealth in the coming year. We did both of these just to be safe.
In Dublin New Years is really really small it was as though nothing was happening at all. I ended up going out dancing with my friends at a local club. The charged us extra to get in on new years but then all they did different then usual was stopped the music for 10 seconds to count down and then went on with the night. We had lots of fun anyways and as we were on our way to the club it began to snow so it was a really nice night at the end.
While speaking with my Brazilian friends they shared some of
their New Years traditions with me...
On New Years eve you should go to the beach and jump over 7 waves.
You should get a new pair of underwear to wear on the night and the colour you select will represent what you want for the coming year, for example: white means you wish for peace.
I think that covers everything for the holiday season for me. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and that santy was good to everyone. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
ps. everyone says Happy christmas here instead of Merry christmas. It really throws me off when they say Happy christmas because I get confused and don't know if I should say happy or merry so I end up saying merrrrrrryyyyhappy christmas?!?!?!
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Cathie Lutes
non-member comment
Celebrations far and wide
As usual, your writing and descriptions have me feeling like I'm right there beside you. Albeit, you are right nothing like a Christmas being shared with family and we missed you too so very much. Mom