Danish Christmas traditions

After dinner, the tree is it, all take hands and dance around the tree singing traditional Danish Christmas hymns and carols.

All Danish kids get one or more Advent calendars - or Christmas calendars as they are called in Denmark. The two big television channels each year produce a special new Christmas series divided into 24 episodes to keep the children's excitement in a high gear. The more fortunate children also get a gift calendar consisting of 24 small presents, one for each day before Christmas, individually bought and wrapped by their parents.

Made by Bertel and Jan

December month

December month is the month when you bake Christmas cakes and have fun with your family. December month is the month when somebody see Christmas calendar which is from 1st December to 24th December. The 24th December is the day where we celabrate Christmas. At my Christmas Day we eat and have fun. It is also the day when we dance around the Christmas tree and when we move it we also sing songs. And when we are done with that we get gifts. And so the day ends. 

-Cecilie.

Czech Christmas Customs and Superstitions

Czech Christmas dinner (December 24) is connected with a great number of different customs, rules and superstitions. Very few of them are still observed today. Here are two of them:
The table should be set for an even number of guests. An odd number brings bad luck or death.
No one should ever get up from the Christmas table before dinner is finished. Doing so brings bad luck and death in the family

Christmas Eve is associated with many superstitions that usually relate to love and destiny that awaits one in the year to come. The foretelling of the future is connected with many popular Christmas customs some of which are still practiced today.
They include:
- The Floating of Walnut Shells
- The Cutting of the Apple
- The Pouring of Lead
There are lots of Christmas customs that help young girls in the family find out if they will get married in the year to come. Here are three of them:
Cherry Tree Twigs (Barborky)
The Throwing of the Shoe
The Shaking of the Elder Tree

Czech Christmas Carp

The traditional Czech festive dinner on Christmas Eve is FRIED CARP with potato salad. A few days before Christmas, on 23rd at the latest, people buy a fresh carp – either live (then they have it usually in the bath in the bathroom for a day or two), or when they buy it, they ask the fisherman to kill it. There are funny stories about “brave” husbands, who were supposed to kill the carp at home, but they couldn’t and then the fragile wife had to do it. Or the carp was taken back to the river or pond and the family had only potato salad for dinner
After you have killed the carp, removed the skin (don’t forget to put aside a few scales to put them later under the plate of the Christmas Eve Dinner and then into your purse - it will bring you good luck in the financial sphere for the next year ) and carve it. Then you salt each piece and coat it in fine flour, whipped eggs and breadcrumbs. After that you fry it till it is soft.
When all the portions of carp are coated, heat some oil in the frying pan and start frying the carp. It is well-done, when it is soft and beautifully gold.
Fried carp is usually served with potato salad. Each family has their own recipe for the potato salad and their salad is always the best. Besides potatoes (boiled in skin) you put chopped cooked carrots and celeriac, pickles and onion. You can add hard-boiled eggs and salami. You can use oil, mayonnaise or yoghurt. Don’t forget to flavour it with pepper and mustard. Enjoy your meal now – but don’t forget that carp has tiny bones!!!¨

Three Christmas Days

The main three Christmas days are
a) 24th December called in Czech called Štědrý Den which could be translated as „Generous Day“
b) 25th December in Czech called „Boží Hod“ which could be translated as „God's Feast“
c) 26th December in Czech called „Na Štěpána“ which could be translated as „On St Stephen's Day“.

24th December - "Generous Day„ - has probably its name bacause of the wealth of food that has traditionally been served for Christmas dinner. In the morning the Christmas tree is decorated with traditional Czech Christmas ornaments and preparations are made for the most festive evening meal of the year (fried carp and potato salad).
According to one Czech Christmas custom, one is supposed to fast all day to see the "golden piglet".

After dinner, everyone around the table may sing Christmas carols before moving to the Christmas tree, which is all lit up and beautiful. By then, presents have been placed under the tree. Czech children believe that Christmas gifts are brought by Baby Jesus. Of course, it's the parents who manage to put the presents under the tree without being seen by the kids. Sometimes it is an achievement!

Some people end „Štědrý Den“ (24th December) by attending the midnight mass (půlnoční mše) at a local church. The celebration and feasting continue on both 25th and 26th December – people give festive lunches and often invite their relatives or friends for the meal or pay each other visits in the afternoon.

Pre-Christmas Preparations in CR 2

About a week before Christmas all preparations are culminating and it is time
a) to get a Christmas tree (people usually buy a spruce or pine tree at a special Xmas tree market) and
b) to buy a carp (you can buy it live in a special out-door stand and have it for a day or two in water in the bathtub in the bathroom or you can ask the seller to kill the carp for you).

St.Nicolas´s Day

In the Czech Republic it is not Santa Claus who brings presents at Christmas, but Ježíšek (Baby Jesus / Little Jesus). However, on St Nicolas Eve (4th December) in the evening Mikuláš (Nicolas) accompanied by angels and devils visits small children’s homes and brings them small presents, usually sweets, nuts and fruit (especially tangerines are quite popular). If the child has been naughty, they get just raw potatoes and black coal. Or even worse – they can be caught by the devils, put into a big bag and carries away, into the hell.

Every year on this night, the streets are filled with devils rattling chains, St. Nicholases with white cotton beards, long white robes and bishop's staves, and white angels with paper wings, coming to see small children to give them a scare before giving them sweets.

The tradition in our school is that on 4th December, some time in the morning the oldest students of our school (aged 18) are dressed up as St. Nicolas, the angels and the devils and they visit the other classes in their classrooms. They are usually very noisy and they make the other students dirty with coal and red lipsticks. They ask the students to sing a song or say a poem and then they give them a treat.