Bathtub CARP and other Czech traditions .....

On Sunday, we enjoyed a buffet breakfast and relaxed at the hotel until we left at 1 PM for Nuremberg.  It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive and the countryside was quite similar to western PA.  Our guide, Blanka, told us about the places that we were passing and also a little about Czech traditions.

Christmas Eve is the big day of celebration with Christmas Day being more low key.  About a week before the holiday, vendors on the streets begin selling live carp - they have big barrels filled with water and the people choose their special Christmas carp!

They take their carefully chosen, soon to be dinner, carp home and are then faced with the task of keeping it alive until Christmas Eve so they fill their bathtub with water and the carp swim happily in the tub until "D" Day.

It's a Czech tradition to fast on Christmas Eve until the evening meal and then the families enjoy their holiday meal of ..... yep ..... CARP along with potato salads.  Just imagine the events of the 24th of each year, when Dad wrestles the carp out of the tub and executes it!  This also makes me wonder how the family bathes during the week before Christmas??  (our guide specifically said that they DO bathe) Hey carp .... move over, I'm coming in!!!!

SO all is well with the world and the Christmas CARP is on the table!!!

The Czechs decorate their Christmas trees after the children go to sleep on 12/23.  When the kids wake up on Christmas Eve morning to a decorated tree, they know that they have been good all year and will get food and gifts from .....Santa??? NOOO, not Santa, from Baby Jesus who flies around on Christmas Eve bringing gifts to all the good boys and girls.  While trying to find a picture online of a flying Baby Jesus, I've discovered that this person is not really Baby Jesus but "Christkind.  

The Christkind is the traditional Christmas gift-bringer in many parts of the world and was used by the Protestant Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries  to discouraged the belief that St. Nicholas brought gifts on December 6.  The Christkind is a child usually depicted with blond hair and angel-like wings.

Another Czech tradition occurs on Easter Monday when the men were permitted to beat the women with willow rods until noon.  This was supposed to give the women "energy!"  After the beating stopped at noon, the women then served the men special colored eggs that they had prepared.  

That was Blanka's verison.  I have done some research and will add the following:

It's called Red Monday and the men (usually in groups) visit their female relatives and friends and spank them on the butt with special whips handmade from willow rods with ribbons at the end.  

The willow is the first tree that "wakes" in the spring so being spanked by the willow was thought to bring fertility and vitality to the women through this act.

The question in my mind - was alcohol involved in this spanking tradition???  OF COURSE it was!!!  I found that the women were lucky if they were one of the first spankings of the day because the "mob" was still sober.  At each stop, the men were given refreshments (vodka) and left over Easter eggs and other things from the Easter baskets.

Walpurgis Night - April 30/May 1

Another Czech tradition is the burning of witches on the last night of April.  Ancient tradition said that evil powers were at their peak on that night and people had to protect themselves, their homes and their livestock.  People believed that crowds of witches flying on broomsticks traveled to a witches' assembly that night.  People would light huge fires on the hillsides and throw burning brooms up into the air to weaken the witches' power and to get rid of them.  

In modern times, this has become a fun tradition.  Throughout the country on April 30, fires are set and "witches" are made from straw and old clothes and burned.  When the fire is roaring, they roast sausages (can you say Czech weenie roast??), and sing and dance to music.  I'm thinking that alcohol is involved here too!!!!

May 1 - the Day of Love

On the evening before May 1 (oh my, isn't this the same night that the witches are burned???), the single males cut down tall trees, remove the branches and decorate them with flowers and ribbons.  They are then erected in the village square and guarded overnight because other males travel about trying to steal as many Maypoles as possible.  

The girls travel around trying to kiss their love interest under a blooming cherry tree or birch tree.  It is thought that if a girl was not kissed, she would wither and die within 12 months.

Needless to say the bus ride to Nuremberg went quickly and we all enjoyed the stories of the Czech traditions!!!  It was time to say goodbye to Blanka :(