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Czech Christmas Traditions are delightful and sometimes shocking to us foreigners. (And especially to Santa because he’s not even invited!) Add a little Czech-ness to your Christmas celebrations:
00:00 Intro
00:40 Where Czechs get festive
01:37 Who deals with naughty and nice Czech children
03:38 How Czechs decorate
05:05 Cyber-security when shopping and special NordVPN offer
06:30 Czech Christmas food
09:30 How Czech children get presents
11:08 Why Santa doesn’t deliver to the Czech Republic
12:31 Superstitions
13:20 Czech Christmas viewing
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42 Comments
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It is more about the potato salad, and the rest of the stuff. Also, there are regional differences, for example we have a Slovak tradition of the kapustnica soup in our family (heritage from our grandmother) and that one truly is the highlight, fragrant and rich. Some regions eat a pea soup, I believe. Also, many people opt for another fish than carp nowadays. Many families decorate the Christmas tree together, the day before or even during Štědrý den.
Walking out of your flat on the first day and seeing endless tubs of carp on the sidewalk is definitely one of the trippiest things you'll ever experience.
As far as I know, Czech children mostly participate in decorating the tree, except perhaps for the sparkles that typically accompaign the moment when the pile of presents is shown to them. By the way, the carp tradition is relatively recent. It was some time in the 50's if ii am not mistaken that the communist government decided to promote our fish pond industry that way so it became traditional in a flip of one or two years. But the real traditional Czech dish is houbovy Kuba. Anyway, most of these traditions have been taken from Germany.
pokud přijede američan do Prahy na štědrý den a dá si vánoční večeři v restauraci, tak ať se potom nediví a neříká: "Proboha co to je???" Příprava štědrovečerní večeře je v každé rodině v česku obřad, do kterého se dává i něco ze svého srdce… a to pak chutná mnohem víc než nějaká polotovarová flákota vzniklá v kuchyni nějaké restaurace.. a bramborový salát? – to je mistrovské dílo, které už při jeho vyslovení vhání do úst toužebné slintání…. ne jako to slizké cosi vzniklé někde v zákoutí temné kuchyně ještě temnější pražské restaurace.. 😀😀
Technically Ježíšek does not decorate Chrismas trees or deliver presents with little baby hands, but with help of a Christmas miracle.
(He's baby Jesus, isn't he?) 🙂 That's what Christmas is all about, a miracle…
Interesting insights. About Kapr. I am from Slovakia. On one hand fish food is even less popular in Slovakia than in Czechia, on the other hand Slovaks are much more traditional and religious than Czechs. The tradition of Kapr is religious catholic tradition of fasting. Basically one should fast all the day until Christmas dinner. And even during dinner one cannot eat meat, only fish. Many catholics practice also other traditional fasting – every Wednesday and Friday + big fasting from Fašang to Good Friday (cca. 2 months). Those were commonly practised in the past, even currently there are some regions in Slovakia where people take it very seriously. So Christmas in central Europe was originally not about Feast and a lot of presents, but rather serious religious event, one would said quite sad and boring one. Nowadays the situation is quite opposite.
My parents were quite faint catholics, it was still communist era, but we lived in a village and traditions were important, much more important than faith. So we had fasting and kapr every Christmas. Half of family liked it, the other half included me hated it. Since I got married we never had kapr on Christmas. I don't eat fish (except for Tuna) and my wife is a vegetarian. One year I tried fish fingers and it was terrible, they ended up in trash. But our children always look forward for Christmas dinner. We are not catholics so I always prepare some excellent meat. And a lot of kolace and a lot of expensive exotic fruits.
I never understood why they eat turkey on Christmas Eve in the US. Christmas is a Christian holiday and the turkey has no Christian symbolism. We eat carp or other fish because fish is a fasting food and a traditional symbol of Christianity. It is a traditional Christmas Eve meal in Central Europe – this dish is served in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany and Austria. However, there are many things that do not make sense in the US. But let everyone celebrate the holidays as they like.
Já ti dám kapra z bahna.. video úplně o ničem.. paní vůbec neví a šíří do světa takové bludy 🖕🏻
I mean, idk if you are sarcastic but if not.. why do you live here if you mind the culture so much? Like there is plenty of european countries to choose from. Moreover you say we like to moan do much but in this video you moan about our culture.
the czech carp soup is the best soup ever 🤤
JÁ se na vánočního kapra TĚŠÍM , moc mi chutná, ale jen jednou za rok 😂😂
kraaaaaaasny cesky vanoce bohaty tradic super , tv plna pohadek, cukrovi, a nesmi chybet bramborovy salat rizek vinny klobasy a kapr, vanocni koledy ,stromecek ozdobeny krasnymi sklenenymi ozdobami ze nam muzou zavidet cely svet, draha pani co je za oceanem marshmallow nouuuuu,nou good, viva stara europa
OMG, Saint Mikuláš wasn not from the Gree!!! Pleace read about that and then talking abou that ;););) he has parents from Gree, but He was not from gree 😉
Naše vánoční tradice a jídlo vychází z tradic dřívějších dob kdy byla chudoba ale to vy američani nemůžete vědět protože když v Evropě děti strojily stromečky tak Kolumbus ještě tahal kačera a říkal hovnu koko a přelož si to jak chceš vy žádné tradice pocházející z dávných dob nemáte.
I'm a traditional czech American, we always have shrimp and lobster, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad….eggnog, very catholic.
we have a tradition, that we can't stand when we have a dinner, and we have a miracle children (he's still jesus but young) who can do whatever he want so why not give all the childen in country some gifts ?
the thing with carp is, Christmass was a fasting day in the olden days, and fish was not considered meat, so it was one of the only "meat" allowed (also, don't confuse american carp and czech carp, there's a world of difference, mainly in flavor)
I know this comment is almost a year late but here it goes.
Being an American I have never ever heard of mommies or daddies slipping anything into a child’s drink on Christmas Eve to put them to sleep. My parents didn’t, my extended family didn’t ( we spent Christmas Eve and day together) nor did I try to put my kids to sleep on Christmas Eve. Staying up late waiting for Santa was and is the beauty of Christmas Eve. It gives parents some quiet time to reflect on why we truly celebrate Christmas.
So the next day we are tired and the kids are joyful. It’s once a year.
But never have I EVER heard of putting something in a night drink on Christmas Eve to put kids to sleep.
Zdravím Dream Prague, je škoda, že se o našich zvycích nepoučíte jinde, než (asi) jen od přátel nebo od holek, které vás učí česky (Cože to Češi dělají o Vánocích?) a které evidentně nic neví… Tradice českých Vánoc sahá hluboko do předkřesťanské minulosti a je směsicí pohanských zvyků a křesťanských symbolů uctívajících narozeného Krista. Současná komerční doba hodně zvyků zničila a hodně lidí už vůbec neví, co který zvyk symbolizuje. Když si to necháte vysvětlit, teprve potom pochopíte kouzlo českých Vánoc a začnete je vnímat úplně jinak. A to, co vidíte v obchodních centrech, to opravdu nejsou české Vánoce, to je jen snaha prodejců vydělat peníze. Přeji vám krásné svátky a pohodu, o kterou jde především. 🙂
Na vánoční svátky jedině kapra, bramborový salát bez uzeniny, cukroví, punč, koledy, stromek, pohádky, pokoru a vděčnost …… Krásné svátky přeji Tobě a všem zde. Bůh s námi. 😇🙏
Actually, I heard many people say: "I can't wait to finally enjoy christmas carp and christmas potato salad again!" Many people don't eat fish, especially carp during the year. It is quite expensive, so they look forward to have it on Christmas eve 🙂
I love carp 🙂 and even better – carp soup 🙂 (but I am living alone and not a very skilled cook, so…)
I am a Belgian now living in Thailand this just for info I went a lot of times to Czechoslovakia and later to Czechia wen I was still living in Belgium but what I now is that in the region of the Tatra mountains they have another figure called Krokonos maybe you should look into that .For the rest a great video
I když vánoce už rok neslavím, stejně trvám na tom, že ty české (v porovnání se zahraničními, obzvláště americkými) jsou prostě nejkrásnější. Josef Lada, cukroví, krásné barokní koledy, pohádky, Ježíšek, půlnoční, purpura, stromeček na tisíc způsobů, řada tradic, dobré jídlo, navštěvování, sníh … krása střídá nádheru, bez ironie. Je zvláštní, jak důležité pro nás jsou, ačkoliv jsme (bohu dík !!! 😉 tolik ateistická země. Na vánoce změknou i cynikové 🙂 Ale možná by bylo příhodnější nazývat je Yule, protože je tam těch podobností mnohem více.
Christmas tree are waiting outside on Czechs balconies, no inside. They could dry quickly. I call it balcony's exhibition
já mám hodně rád chuť kapra
I do love Carp on Christmas.❤
Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas FYI.
dunno if somebody mentioned it here already but Svaty Mikulas IS Saint Nikolas = Santa
What??? We love carp
Santa Claus is actually Saint Niclaus, so, our Mikuláš is this "American" Santa Claus. There is a story he was a normal boy, who like to carve the wood toy for other kids in the village and secretly give it to them during the night.
1:36 That felt like a stretch… there is still a LOT of commerce going on, it’s just not in “a mall”. But really, it’s like an outdoor (historical) mall. You don’t have to spend money at a USA mall either. But just like the CR it’s just a little more fun when you at least get food
When comes to the Christmas tree, what you described would more fit the old times… nowadays it really depends on the family… when I was a kid (10-15 y ago), my parents for example bought the tree during the last week before Christmas Eve and we all decorated it together a day or two before the Eve for the Ježíšek – so he can find us and deliver the presents…
…but as you said, other people, especially with kids, leave the tree naked and then they decorate it when they're putting presents under it during the afternoon/evening while kids are forbidden to go to that room (usually livingroom) because they'd scare Ježíšek who is preparing it.
And the decorations may include some gingerbreads, handmade stuff and dried fruits but mostly it's combinations of a few old traditional glass balls, a bunch of cheaper plastic balls (kids love breaking them, especially when they're helping decorate the tree), those Christmas fluffy decorative chains and either real candles or Christmas light strings.
We moved away from carp several years ago and it was one of the best decisions we made… our grandma wasn't so happy so she still gets a carp but the rest of us enjoy pan-seared salmon fillet (we agreed to keep a fish meal, just not carp) with potato salad
Postrádala jsem jeden důležitý detail. Vánoční stromek musí být ověšen několika kilogramy specielních vánočních cukrovinek a čokoládek, které se vyrábějí a prodávají pouze v předvánočním čase, zhruba od poloviny října.
Jinak perfektní video.
I'm foreginer and id doesn't shock me. A lot of this traditions are in other coutries too.
Carp aŕe used for fertiliser in minnesota
We will be coming to prague in may what do we have to do to protect our phone info
Nakonec není to krásné… Když nevěřící češi věří na Ježíška😄
Ale líbí se všem
Just to let you know, we are usually decorating the christmas tree before 24. december and we are doing it ourselves
Tak tady jste se tedy hodně zmýlila. Kapra máme rádi. Nechápu, proč ze zabíjení kapra děláte takový tyjátr. Zvířatům na jatkách se dějí horší věci i u vás v Americe.