Saint Nicholas

Christmas season is in full gear here in the Czech Republic.  Saturday, December 5th was Svati Mikulaš (St. Nicholas) day - a day of fun and fright for kids all across the country.

We went with our friends the Tučkovi and bought ourselves a Christmas tree.  It's sitting on our porch waiting for December 24th.  That's the traditional day to set it up.  It then stays up until January 6th.  Here is Jan trying to decide between two trees...

From 2009-12

On Svati Mikulaš the tradition is that St. Nick (dressed as a Catholic Bishop - or some similar high office) goes around with an angel, who carries a basket of presents, and Chert, this minor devil character that shows up all over in Czech folktalkes, who carries a switch to whack kids and hands out coal.  So groups of people dress up and go around and mess with people.  They ride the buses, they stroll the streets.  Our friend Jan says that he used to be so scared to go out on Svati Mikulaš.

From 2009-12

In the evening we, and all the rest of České Budejovice, went downtown.  There, with thousands of other people, we watched a guy dressed like an angel descend on a zip line from the Black Tower to the opposite side of the square.  He had a little trouble getting going and moved very slowly at first, but suddenly zinged right along.  Everybody cheered. Then, with loud creepy music playing from huge speakers, a giant angel paraded around the square. Here's a short clip (notice the size relative to the three story buildings)...

From 2009-12

Svati Mikulaš brought a present for Caleb and Lucy...no school all week.  There were so many sick kids and fear over flu that classes were canceled for the whole week.  Pray for us.

Peter