I hope you like this small glimpse into Slovak Christmas customs...
Merry Christmas!
I was invited to join Adrianka, Vierka, and Zuzka for their annual tradition of making Advent wreaths. What a fun night, but I definitely came to terms that I am no Martha Stewart. My strength lies in my super-human ribbon curling abilities alone.
The Christmas Tree and market outside of the National Theater in Bratislava. What a perfect setting to begin preparing for Christmas...cold air, lots of lots, festive shoppers, music!
The children's choir is practicing their Christmas music.
Christmas Punch (Vianoce Punc)...yum! Maybe as festive as a glass of eggnog...I think probably even more!Slovakia has a character quite like our Santa Claus. St. Mikulas comes on December 6th, leaving candy and small toys for the good children. St. Mikulas does not have any elves to help him, but instead, he relies on a little devil to assist him on his way. For all the children who tried to convince me in elementary school that Santa could not be real because it would be impossible to go around the world in a single night, I think you can see how wrong you are. Santa only has to work certain portions of the world on 12/24...and St. Mikulas only has to work his areas on 12/6. What a relief!
Finally, it's just not Christmas without a little trauma from a visit of kindly characters like St. Mikulas and devil...from the sound of the room, you'd have thought you were in a Greek tragedy, not a holiday party. However, I think the same happens back home in the states.
1 comment:
Hi Sarah -- what a great view of the Christmas holiday in another part of the world!! I was mentally going through my years-ago classroom activity of "compare and contrast".
George Galante
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