Czech and Slovak Club of  Greater Kansas City

You are invited to a celebration honoring  St. Mikulas

 

Come and celebrate this traditional Czechoslovakian holiday. This is a special event that focuses on the children, who are especially welcome, as well as all those interested in Czech and Slovak culture, customs and history.

 

Sunday, December 4, 2005

2:00pm - 5:00pm

 

South Minster Presbyterian Church

6306 Roe

Prairie Village, KS

931-432-3505

 

Please RSVP to Jirina LaVine at 816-753-2540 or jirinal@yahoo.com by November 30, 2005. Please provide number of adults & children who will be attending.There is no charge to attend.

 

Czech & Slovak musical entertainment by Tony Kugler.

Christmas music provided by the Barbara Kelly Bell Choir Group.

 

We hope you can join us for this fun-filled afternoon!

 

2:00 - 2:45

Gather and musical entertainment

 

2:45 - 3:45

Potluck Meal

We ask that each family bring a side dish as follows:

     A - J – main dish

     K - R – vegetable/salad

     S - Z – appetizer/dessert

The Club will provide soda, coffee, punch, and utensils.

 

3:45 - 5:00

Visit from St. Mikulas

     Children’s gifts and other activities Bring a wrapped gift for each child you bring,with his or her name on it. (max. value of $10)

 

Kids, can you sing a song, read a poem, tell a story, do a trick? Then share your talents with St. Mikulas on this celebration day.

 

—————

 

 

 

Christmas and New Year Customs in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic

 

Christmas and New Year are occasions for great family celebrations.  The Czech and Slovak nations, after their Christianization in the ninth and tenth centuries, incorporated some of their pre-Christian customs pertaining to the New Year celebration into the holidays.

 

One such custom is looking into the future.  Village girls cut a hole into the village fish pond, or in the well, and hope to see reflected the face of the man they will marry.   If an apple cut in half reveals a star, without worm damage, then a healthy year ahead is predicted.

 

Christmas holidays were also an occasion to say goodbye to deceased members of the family.  In some regions, plates with food would be placed on the table for the departed family members.  Hopefully, the deceased would see from the heavens that their departure had not changed the place they held in the minds and hearts of their relatives.

 

Christmas time served as a time for reaffirmation of Christian(and pre-Christian) values of charity.  All beggars and other poor people in the village got food.  Domestic animals had to share the feast as well.  Cows, goats, dogs, and poultry got, at least, some crumbs from the festive table.  Bees got sugar or sugar water.  Some food was thrown into the well so that “it would not dry out”.

 

Often, Christmas food was sprinkled with holy water before being eaten, transferring it’s blessing into the people.

 

In the olden times people did not give each other gifts other than food.  During the winter months, this constituted the most appreciated gift anyway.  In somewhat later times, articles of clothing, often homemade, began to be exchanged.  Many of these hand-made items were intricately embroidered, therefore, highly valued.

 

Evergreen Christmas trees were introduced into Bohemia as well as into much of the rest of Europe from Scandinavia and Germany.  Before they had Christmas trees, Czechs and Slovaks used wreaths made from evergreen branches.  They hung the branches under the ceiling and decorated them with fruits and baked goodies.  In some Slovak regions, people cut small trees and placed them in water indoors so that they would blossom.

 

Since the introduction of Christmas trees into these lands, the trees often have been decorated with colorful paper, tinsel, and cookies.  On the top of the tree, families often hang a crystal bell to help them detect when the children were stripping the trees of goodies.

 

The Slovak and Czech Christmas season ends with the feast of the Three Wise Men on the 6th of January.  Children, dressed as these Wise Men, go singing carols in the neighborhood and are rewarded with nuts, candy, and cookies.

 

Nowadays, Christmas celebration in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic starts on Christmas Eve, when a traditional meal of fish and potato salad are served.  After that the children open their presents, and later, the adults go to midnight mass.  Christmas Day is spent leisurely, at home or visiting relatives.  It is the time when dieting is postponed until the New Year’s Day resolution.  Chlebicky(open face sandwiches) and cookies are placed on the table to tempt and seduce everyone in the family or among visitors.  There must be either seven or twelve sorts of cookies to secure good luck for the family.

 

New Year’s Day is a secular celebration in the Slovak and Czech lands.  It is the time for parties, more food, and some drinks, including wine for the midnight toast.  A midnight kiss, the first of the year, is reserved for the loved person.  Then every person of the opposite sex may be kissed, and the husbands and wives are not supposed to be jealous.

 

Activities which are done on New Year’s Day are supposedly the activities people will have to do every day of the rest of the year. 

 

During olden times, in the villages the garda or hospodar(the farmer) would pull out his plough and make a symbolic round of his field.  Nowadays, people prefer to take the day leisurely, curing their headaches and hoping that there will not be too much work to do during the rest of the New Year.

 

Miluse Saskova-Pierce - 1985