Christmas At School: Beginning to End

The first holiday in the Christmas season is Saint Borbora's Day, 4 December. As I explained before, on this day, unmarried women cut a branch from a tree and place it in water to see if it will bloom by Christmas. If it does, the woman will be married in the following year. You can see above that my branch bloomed! This means that in 2010, I will marry a Czech. I am not, however, holding my breath.

Next up, the following day, is Sv. Mikuláš Day. This is the day when Sv. Mikuláš (Czech for St. Nicholas) brings an angel and devil into the homes of small children. Those well-behaved children may sing a song and earn a treat from the angel. The little ones deemed too troublesome to continue existence will be taken in a sack down to hell by the devil. Kind of puts our coal tradition to shame. What a way to begin the Christmas season--fear for one's immortal soul!

Then, of course, we have Christmas! This was our Christmas tree at school. It took a long time to string all of those dried fruit rings but it was certainly more enjoyable than stringing popcorn and cranberries (yeah, Mom, you'll never live that down). Our ornaments are made out of gingerbread. It was a very traditional European Christmas tree, though I am told that the Czechs also usually have ornaments made out of straw.


And finally, we come to Three Kings Day, 6 January. This brings our Christmas season to a close. If you think about it, we've been celebrating for over a month straight now it seems, so maybe it's time. A lot of the traditions that were reserved for Three Kings Day have been moved to Christmas Day--like in America. However, Three Kings Day in the Czech Republic is a day when people from various charitable organizations come knock at your door to ask for money. Some of my students brought in change purses and couldn't wait to give a few crowns to the Three Kings when they came knocking! It's good to end the Christmas season with a non-materialistic giving holiday!

Saint Barbora Day and Saint Mikuláš Day

Last Friday, 4 Dec., was Saint Barbora's Day. I came in to work to find this branch in a cup of water. I, honestly, didn't think to ask about it. Later on in the day, my co-worker asked me, "Do you know what this is for?"
"Uh, no?" I replied.
"Today is Saint Barbora's Day and in the old days it was a tradition that you cut a branch from a tree and if it--"
"Buds?"
"Yes, if it buds by Christmas, you will be married in the next year."

I looked at the branch and then paused for a second.
"Wait, this branch is for me? Everyone else is married!"
"Yes, and the children are too young. So it is your branch. If you have many boyfriends, you cut one branch for each of them and put a tag on it. Jana said she doesn't know how many you have so maybe we should cut a lot."
Jana walked into the conversation at this point.
"Oh yes, it is your branch. If it buds, we need to know will it be a Czech or an American."
"Well, we could always cut another one and put flags on each," I suggested jokingly. Yet, when I came back on Monday, there was a second little branch in the cup. So, I added the flags. The odds are stacked against the American branch but, what can I say? If I marry a Czech, I can get citizenship!

Today, a four-year-old student of mine was decorating my branch and when it was too heavily laden with decorations, Jana and I feared it might break. She explained to him, "This branch needs to bud so that Colleen can marry a nice, handsome Czech boy."
"Like me?" he asked.

I love my job.


Yesterday, I went to a small Christmas pageant with my students. Part of the Christmas season here is, which I alluded to last time, Sv. Mikuláš Day. On 5 Dec., the Czechs go all out for Sv. Mikuláš. He is kind of Saint Nicholas and has many similarities to Santa Claus. On 5 Dec., he comes to your house with an angel and a devil. If you are a good child, you sing a song and the angel gives you some kind of treat--candy or a gift. If you are a bad child, the devil puts you in a sack and takes you to hell. Sv. Mikuláš wears a tall pointy hat with a cross and carries a book with the names of good and bad children (a bit classier than Santa Claus' list). There are some differences in the portrayal of the devil and angel than in American iconography. The angel doesn't always have a halo, often just a star on her forehead. The devil is not a red beast, he's usually black with red horns. He may or may not have cloven hooves. He has a tail (more like an animal's than a devil's) and chains. He wears dirty clothes. I think it's actually more frightening than the less-believable American devil.

What is truly crazy is that parents actually pay people to come to their houses and scare the be-Jesus out of their children. I've heard tales of my friends peeing themselves as small children when the devil came to their door with Sv. Mikuláš and the angel. But when you're an adult, it's a wonderful holiday! It's an excuse to dress up (which I did!) and something you can hold over children's heads. "Be good! Don't you know who is coming this weekend?!" Getting taken to hell or getting coal in your stocking, which is a more effective threat?

Can We Just Take a Minute

About a week and a half ago, Jess (above) and I were walking to get dinner in I.P. Pavlova and we saw something magical in Naměsti Miru. There was a Christmas tree and little stalls, with people mulling about in their winter coats. "Can we please take a detour to see what that is?" she asked. When we got closer, we found ourselves in a small Christmas market, which fill many of the squares in the Czech Republic (and as I am to understand, much of Europe) from the end of November until Christmas. The little wooden stalls harked back to a time before plasma screen advertisements covered every inch of a city. They sold mulled wine, Christmas ornaments, handcrafts, and all the things that would make one think of Christmas in a fairy tale world. It was like stepping into the world I imagined Hanzel and Gretel grew up in.
"Can we just take a minute to appreciate the fact that we live in a magical fairy tale land?" asked Jess.
"Yes, yes we can." I replied.

Little did I know that this small market was just the beginning.


While I spent actual Thanksgiving having a small wine-and-chicken dinner party with Czech friends, I spent Friday having a gluttonous feast with expats of all stripes and colors. Jess cooked a turkey (with my assistance via Skype) and we took turns carving the bird. I was quite proud of my carving skills, even if I did hack it to bits. I got the turkey off the carcass, that's what counts! I also brought a very well-received apple pie that I managed to bake in my oven without temperature control. It was certainly no Heaney family Thanksgiving, but we went around the room and said what we were thankful for, and on actual Thanksgiving, we toasted with cherry liquor, so I felt sufficiently at home.


On Saturday, the first day of advent, the holiday season kicked off in earnest. We went to watch the tree lighting in Old Town Square. Luckily, we entered through the least packed street, but it was still a zoo. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The tree in New York cannot begin to compare to Prague's Christmas tree. When it has a castle-like cathedral as a backdrop, what can you expect?

You can see the stalls all set up in this gigantic Christmas market. After the crowds dissipated, we wandered around the market and got some hot chocolate. I look forward to spending every weekend this way until Christmas! This place can only get more magical. On Saturday, I will enjoy my first Saint Mikulaš celebration, dressed as an angel, and look forward to reporting back all of the day's ridiculous events. I'll give this as a teaser: In America, you wait until you die for the devil to take your soul to hell, but in the Czech Republic, they like to nip it in the bud and take you straight away to hell as a misbehaving tot. Or so you are led to believe.

17 Listopadu

I've been trying to write more than post photos in this blog, but I think that Tuesday warrants a photo-heavy post. Tuesday, the 17th of November, was the 20th anniversary of the student marches that led to the end of communism in what was then Czechoslovakia. On that day 20 years ago, about 30,000 students took to the streets of Prague in a march that was sanctioned by the government because it was officially honoring a student who had been killed by the Nazis fifty years earlier. The protest turned rebellious and the state police assaulted the students, but they just continued to march.

On Tuesday, I met my friend Erin in Wenceslas Square where we saw the beginnings of the day's festivities. Czech flags were everywhere.




We walked to Albertov, the starting place of the 1989 march and where we would listen to (albeit without any understanding) speakers talk about democracy. When we got there an hour before the speakers would begin, there was no one there. We were a bit wary that this might not be as big of a deal as we had been hoping. As we neared 3:00, more and more people came.



This is the "Sweet! We aren't the only people here anymore!" pose.

They came with their flags and their signs, most of which I could not even begin to read. Many of them had to do with the unpopularity of the current Czech president, Vaclav Klaus. It reminded me of all the peace rallies I used to go to in high school, how many variations of "impeach Bush" I had seen. But growing up in a country that celebrated the 200th anniversary of being rebellious crusaders for liberty and democracy before I was even born, it is strange to imagine that in my own lifetime, the country I currently think of as home was not a place where one could even hold such a sign.

After the speakers, we followed the path that the students took in 1989. On the way, we saw performances of all kinds on the street corners.

The march took over two hours as we walked from Albertov to Narodni.

I felt like quite an outsider here. What have I done to earn my place in this crowd? Thanks to America's fear of teaching students anything about communism, I barely even know anything about the history. But this march wasn't just about honoring the people who helped spur democracy in the Czech Republic, it was also about bringing democracy and freedom to other parts of the world where people still live in fear of their government. And hey, that's something I can get behind.




Along the route, we saw many people sticking their heads out their windows to watch the march.



But by far the best was guy-without-a-shirt-wearing-a-gold-chain. That is the sign of freedom: being able to watch a march from your own flat topless if you want.

At first, we thought this was a group of police actually attacking marchers. Then, we realized that they were re-enacting the events of 1989. Way to be cool and scary at the same time, in true Czech fashion. Nevertheless, there were lots of riot police on hand just in case things got a little too spirited, but they wore friendly yellow vests instead of helmets!

One of the biggest symbols of the Velvet Revolution was the jingling of keys by students to represent unlocking the doors to freedom. The whole march, we could hear the gentle jingling of keys in the background.

And so, we rang ours too. Keys have always held such symbolism in my life. I worked as a locksmith's assistant one summer and learned so much about them and their history. I wear a key, that I found in a drawer in my dad's house, around my neck so that I always have home close to my heart. But now, I will never touch one without a momentary thought of how students, people my age and younger, used them to peacefully change the world.