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Keeping fish in the bathtub before Christmas
This tradition came about because eating carp at Christmas is supposed to bring good luck, but since they are bottom feeders, they taste better if kept in clean water in a tub for several days before eating. Keeping the fish in the bathtub also ensures that it stays fresh right up until Christmas Day. After being held captive in the bathtub for at least two days, the fish is then gathered and prepared to cook. The carp is often served fried with potato salad for a traditional Slovak Christmas meal. One would say that Christmas starts on the 24/25th of December. But that’s not entirely true for Slovakia. Because most of the Slovaks are Christians, our Christmas starts 4 weeks earlier, to be more exact 4 Sundays before the actual Christmas eve. This period is called Advent. Advent is a season observed in many Western Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. The term is a version of the Latin word meaning “coming”. During this period we prepare various Christmas decorations we use later, bake gingerbread and other types of pastry, deep-clean houses (traditional period of cleaning windows and curtains) and if you are a true Christian believer you also go to church to get confession, so you can welcome baby Jesus with a clean soul. All the parties, weddings, big celebrations are postponed during this expectation period. There are of course some exceptions to this rule. Very typical for this period is so-called Advent calendar or Advent wreath.
Most of the time it is a wreath decorated with 4 candles. Every Sunday prior to the Xmas Eve, for the period of the 4 following Sundays, one candle is burned.
It’s also the time when cities and towns start to prepare for Christmas. They put on decoration, Christmas lighting and organize Christmas markets. December is a very cold month and you need some mulled wine and warm punch to keep yourself fit. It also gets dark early, so nice afternoon walk through the Christmas market with all those lights and some nice booze will set you into the mood for some Xmas shopping.
Slovak Christmas lasts three days. We celebrate from 24th until 26th. We also receive our presents at 24th, on the Christmas Eve after the dinner. Tradition is that we build up our Christmas tree on 23th Dec, but these days everybody is busy and people build up the tree usually the weekend before Christmas Eve. Some families with small kids build up their trees on the night from 23rd to 24th. So when the children wake up in the morning they have a special surprise from Baby Jesus. And yeah, our gifts get delivered by the baby Jesus, not by the Santa Claus? And yes, none of the kids ever questioned the fact how can a baby deliver the presents. It’s all just part of the Christmas magic.
24th December – Christmas Eve: It’s my most favourite day of the whole year. Since morning mums are busy in the kitchen cooking Christmas soup – kapustnica (sourkraut) and making the mayonnaise potato salad. There are many variations to the soup. Some people make mushroom soup other make sour lentil soup. Rest of the family either helps or just fools around and tries to find something yummy to eat. You are not supposed to eat the whole day, so you can enjoy the Christmas dinner (See the golden pig). But with all that cooking you usually grab little something to eat anyway. TV is full of Christmas movies and radio plays Christmas songs all day long. Christmas Eve is celebrated together with the family.
Some of the families set one extra plate on the table for all the loved who are not among us anymore. Some put coins under the plates on the table, to have prosperous next year. Other families cut and share an apple, so they can meet like this again. Some families pray, some don’t.
