‘Vesele Vanoce’ (Merry Christmas) everyone!
As the days grow shorter and the temperatures plunge lower, I want to take the opportunity to hope blessings and warmth for each of you during these last few days before Christmas. The Christmas atmosphere is in full swing here in Olomouc, and every Czech city we have seen so far has boasted huge Christmas villages selling all kinds of gift-type things and an array of refreshments, all centering around an ENORMOUS Christmas tree in the middle December 5th is a national Czech holiday which also marks the night when they celebrate the tree lighting, followed by 15 minutes of fireworks and orchestral music. It’s really cool to see so many of your neighbors all jam packed in together to watch something so special. But the occasion the 5th commemorates is a different kind of Czech Christmas tradition. Instead of the hype Santa typically receives, here St. Mikulas gets the attention, and on this day he goes around with none other than the devil to see just how ‘pious’ the kids are. So this oddly matched pair will go from door to door (traditionally speaking - nowadays it’s really something like 2 family friends who go to certain houses and play the role) and solicit the traditional verses, which are some poems the kids would have memorized. So if the kids have been good and can recite their verses well they will receive treats, but if not, they’ll get scolded by the devil. It’s kind of a more surreal version of Halloween mingled with the Christmas timing. But it works, and it’s amusing to see people walking around these days before Christmas sporting divine or demonic paraphernalia.
Last weekend we took a train to Prague to visit the church there and reconnect with our friends. We arrived on Saturady and spent the rest of the day hanging out in town, seeing all the sights and basking in the festovoties. Then on Sunday we attended services and savored a Czech-style potluck dinner right after. Lots of cabbage dishes and Chinese foods (from those who waited too long to prepare), but it was fun to have that fellowship and then regale each other with Christmas carols when we were finished eating.
And just tonight we took a short train ride to one of the outlying towns around Olomouc to see a Christmas concert directed by one of our language school teachers. It was darn cold but we enjoyed the singing and the free chai that went along with it.
Which brings up language school. We have now been in classes for 3 weeks, but our hopes for immediate proficiency have been soundly dashed. This language is incredibly complex (like Greek squared) and incredibly humbling, so we feel that any confidence in any area is a victory to be celebrated. And to make things a little more interesting, we have not one or two but 4 different teachers, each with their own distinct teaching style. This makes for a lot of overlaps when it comes to review and material to be covered, but going over things multiple times will evntually drill it into our cerebral cortexes, so I say bring on the reptition.
We have now begun our Christmas break and we couldn’t be more ready for it. This will give us a little time to catch up on doing those things we’ve been neglecting for the past month and allow us some time to relax. To actually celebrate Christmas we are cooking up a veritable feast on Sunday night and having a kind of slumber party at the Keens’ apartment. We will wake up Monday morning similarly to the family-style we’ve been used to and race to the tree to shake and ooh and ahhh all our gifts. (We have been forced to put a time-restrainer on Christie, whose idea of Christmas morning is sprinting out of bed at 6am - a no-go for the rest of us). We are doing a Secret Santa gift exchange, each person having selected one of our names out of a hat, so this should make for some good times. Then we’re going to wallow in lazy indulgence for the rest of the day, plowing through a movie marathon and treating ourselves to the prized American edibles we have scored during our time here.
Well, I want to wish you all the best for Christmas, and I hope that you can surround yourselves with those who mean the most to you. May you find peace and rest over the next couple of weeks.
Love,
Graham
