Hi All!! I am an Indian and will be meeting my Czech boyfriend's family this Christmas for the first time. I have read earlier posts and have a fair idea about presents etc. I have also been learning Czech for a couple of months and can speak few sentences with appropriate pronunciation (even the most dreaded ř...Yayyyy) I want to ask what it is like staying with a Czech family. Am I expected to help with the routine household chores? Can someone share what to do/expect at the Christmas dinner? I have never celebrated Christmas simply 'coz I am a Hindu. Any insights about appropriate conduct/decorum will be immensely helpful. I really want to be liked!! Priya
नमस्ते There is no strict routine for christmas celebration, this depends on the family and varies house from house. Ask your boyfriend for particular customs in his family. In my family Christmas dinner is one of not many ocasions in the year when we all dress up, have some decorations around, there is a candle in the middle of the table, we eat fried carp and then we go together to the tree to open gifts...
One tip for you - don't scream when you walk in the bathroom and see a large carp floating in the tub.
my residual dyslexia made that sentence quite shocking! Hee hee, funny how none of the Czech people mentioned this! This always happens to me in class... people ask me.. how do you celebrate easter? oh we don't really do anything special.. Don't you hide eggs and eat chocolate rabbits? Oh yeah! I suppose that is odd now that you mention it...
They are killed on the Christmas Eve for Christmas dinner. But it's now less common than it was in past. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKTLrP8zExU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK9671CN ... re=related
It's for few days. Before Christmas, there are live carp vendors all over the streets. But nowadays, many people just let vendor to kill carp on the spot and they put it in the fridge at home. (or they don't eat carp at all) They don't
Just a guess, but I think this "tub" thing is from ages where even carps was hard to get before christmas, and people did not have freezers, so people just bought it 2 weeks before christmas to be sure they have one, and then only way to keep it fresh was keeping it alive.