Celebrating Christmas and New Year in Prague

The Golden Pig and the Party of Pyrotechnics

About 150 000 tourists, from the USA, Russia, Germany, Italy, the former Yugoslavian Republics and other countries, celebrated the coming of the year 2007 in Prague. The New Year celebration was organized in two of Prague's largest squares - the Old Town Square and the Wenceslas Square



By JASNA JANKOVIĆ
from Belgrade, SERBIA


Christmas (Vánoce) in the Czech Republic is celebrated, according to the Catholic tradition, on December 25th. This is the time of year when shops make their biggest profits and after the hysteria of buying presents ends, there comes the time for celebration. Some of them are usual - like singing carols, decorating the Christmas tree and putting presents under it. But while in most of the countries presents are brought by Santa Clause, the Czechs believe that Jesus Christ does that, and they call him Ježišek (Little Christ). Kids write letters to him saying what they would want to find under the Christmas tree and leave them on the window. As technology moves ahead, this tradition changed a bit - now kids write sms massages that parents can receive.

"Don't get up from the Christmas table" and "The Golden Pig

Many customs are connected with Christmas Eve, which should be spent with family. One shouldn't eat anything the whole day and before dinner, it is believed, they will see a golden pig which means they'll be happy the entire year. At the Christmas table, there's usually potato salad, roast chicken and roast carp. One of the customs is connected with the carps' flakes. After preparing the fish, you put it into your wallet until next Christmas and it would bring money to you. The most unusual belief is that no one, except the housewife, should get up from the dinner table, otherwise they will die. One of the regular customs is that every member of the family puts a little candle in a walnut-shell and puts it on water. That whose candle remains lighted the longest, will be happy next year. The same result you get if, after cutting an apple on half, you find the core in the shape of a star.

At midnight, people usually go to church, and the tradition of the Czech Christmas Mass was held this year too in the Old Town Square, one of the two most famous squares in Prague. That day on the streets of Prague you could see almost only tourists. About 60 000 of them, mostly from European countries, spent Christmas holidays in the capital of Czech Republic. A lot of them, besides visiting the sights of Prague, also visited traditional Christmas markets. The largest one was in the Old Town Square, and also in the Wenceslas Square, another famous square in this town. On these markets you can buy souvenirs, hot red vine, or roasted chestnuts. Beside others decorations in town, you could see two huge Christmas trees in both these squares. Unfortunately, instead of snow-white Prague, tourists were welcomed with rain and cold wind.

Happy New Year or the Party of pyrotechnics

About 150 000 tourists, from the USA, Russia, Germany, Italy, the former Yugoslavian Republics and other, celebrated the coming of year of 2007 in Prague. The New Year celebration was organized this year in two of the largest squares in Prague - the Old Town Square and the Wenceslas Square. At the Old Town Square, at noon, a program for children was organized - with performances of a magician and fakir and a singing contest. In the evening, on stage you could hear several Czech artists and bands.

A lot more interesting was the program at the Wenceslas Square which was organized by of one of the largest TV stations in the Czech Republic - "TV Nova". For the first time in history, this year was the celebration was broadcast live. On the big stage that was close to one of the monuments of St. Wenceslas, you could see a performance of most popular Czech bands and artists (Karel Gott, Lucie and Helena Vondráková, contesters of the show "Superstar"...), comedians and TV presenters. There was an estimated 20 000 people in this square. Although they were asked not to bring any pyrotechnics, they still did. Beside the smiling faces of people who were celebrating, you could often see people jumping, covering their ears, looking for protection because of all the racquets and other pyrotechnics that were flying around. The safest place was near the stage were you couldn't bring any of this and unless you were there, the only music you could hear was the shooting and the sounds of explosion. A bit calmer was the front stage at the Old Town Square, and the peaceful and good atmosphere you could find on the streets only a bit far from this part of center.

Many clubs, discotheques, restaurants celebrated in style and were offering, beside of Czech traditional music, other popular styles - disco, house, hip-hop, pop, and even gipsy music. The prices for the New Year's celebration in clubs were between 20 and 70 Euros, while in some restaurants in center of Prague you had to pay 20-30 Euros for reservation.

Midnight was welcomed in the streets of Prague with congratulations in Czech - "Štastný Nový rok!", and in many other languages, with singing, champagne and magnificent fireworks from Wenceslas Square.

The less pretty side of the New Year celebration was that six people died and 70 were injured, mostly because of the pyrotechnics and because they drank too much alcohol. The doctors on Prague said that this was the worst celebration in the last five years and that they had five times more interventions then last year. The Fire fighters also had their hands full, while the Police reported no major incident. The citizens of Prague found themselves wandering for a few hours after midnight when they saw the subway stations overflowing with tourists. That may not be so strange if you consider that the prices of taxi ride became somehow a lot more expensive after midnight. The celebration went on the next day with the traditional fifteen minute New Year's Day fireworks from Letna Garden.