December Newsletter - Kristen in Slovakia

December Newsletter

Holiday Customs in Slovakia

I had a lot of people ask me how I celebrated the holidays in Slovakia so I decided to use that as my focus for the December newsletter. Hope you enjoy!
The first holiday that came was Mikolaš Day celebrated on December 6th. Some of you may be more familiar with this holiday known as St. Nicolas´s Day. The children here cleaned their boots and put them on the windowsil the night before in hopes that Mikolaš, Santa or St. Nick as we know him, would fill them with candy in the morning. All throughout the stores little chocolate santas were sold, accompanied by angels and devils. The devils were to scare the bad children and I guess the angels balanced out the devil. I had the pleasant surprise of finding my boots had been taken from downstairs and cleaned for me (I must have been really good!) and I had a large chocolate Mikolaš in one and an orange in the other. It was a nice unexpected surprise. Later that day everyone in the village gathered outside the mayor´s office and Mikolaš gave each child in the village a present.
Then came Christmas. Christmas Eve is the major day for celebrating here. On Christmas Eve I went with my host family to church in the afternoon. It was freezing in church, none of them are heated here in Slovakia, so I appreciated the many layers that I had been advised to wear. There were even icicles inside on one of the windowpanes that had a leak! The service was nice with some singing, reading from the Bible, and a sermon. My favorite part was when we sang Silent Night in Slovak and the lights were turned off.
Next we headed back to Myln, the center where we live, and had a Christmas program with the boys, some of the workers, a few families, and some visitors, probably about fifty people in all. We had a program similar to the church service and then we all went downstairs to share Christmas dinner together. The traditional Christmas dinner in Slovakia consists of cabbage soup, carp, and potato salad. The cabbage soup is one of my favorites, with a red broth, lots of cabbage, and some mushrooms and sausage. We had a fish fillet cooked in a garlic sauce since there were so many of us, and a potato salad that was made with tarter sauce instead of mayonaise. After eating we went upstairs back to the living room where the tree was with gifts under it. My host mom, Eva, handed out the gifts to the boys, and we had some fellowship time together.
After that, I headed with my host family to their flat. There we opened more presents. My host mom was facinated by the picture book about Pennsylvania that my parents sent and I spent a good amount of time trying to explain to her in Slovak about the Amish while my host dad put together the kitchen set they bought for the girls. After the children had played with their presents for a little, we all gathered back together in their living room. We had tea and christmas cookies and watched Popoluška, the Slovak version of Cinderella which everyone watches on Christmas Eve. Finally we ended the evening by praying together.
The other major holiday that we experienced here was New Year´s Eve. We actually had two celebrations here as a compromise since the workers wanted to have a program together and the boys wanted a disco party for the village. So on January 30th we had a program together. We had some singing and for some reason they wanted me to lead everyone in singing head, shoulders, knees, and toes in Slovak. So I did, which was definitely interesting but everyone was a good sport about it. Then we played some games, had a short Bible study, and had a slide show of pictures from the last year. It was a very nice evening all together. Then on New Year´s Eve there was a disco party in our dining room downstairs and a few of the boys opened up the coffee bar and sold some tea, coffee, Kofola (the Slovak version of cola that has a hint of licorice), and french fries. They actually had a really good business with all the boys and people in the village who were there. A couple of the other workers and I were the chaperones, definitely a new role for me, and I had fun talking with them and the boys running the coffee bar, enjoying my tea that was on the house, and watching the dancing which accompanied an interesting mix of hip-hop, pop music in English and Slovak, and some Slovak folk music. Just before midnight we turned on the small television above the coffee bar and counted down to the new year with the Slovak celebrities. Then we all went around shaking hands, giving hugs, or kissing each other on the cheeks and wishing each other a štastny novy rok (Happy New Year). I really liked the personal feeling as everyone made a point to wish everyone else in the room blessings for the upcoming year.
Well that is the festivities of December here in a nutshell for you. I am looking forward to seeing what the new year brings here. I am off to a seminar in Poland next week with the other volunteers here, in Germany, and from the Czech Republic. I am definitely looking forward to getting together with everyone. Please keep this ministry, the boys here, and the workers in your prayers.

Wishing everyone a new year full of peace and God´s blessings,
Kristen