Czech Christmas: Carp in the Bathtub

Written by Brittany
For most Czech people, today (the 24th) is the main holiday. Today they will get together with family and eat their traditional foods of fish soup, carp, and potato salad. Their potato salad is a little different than what we're used to in the States, and my students thought it was really funny when I told them we traditionally eat potato salad in the summer at picnics, since to them, it is definitely a winter food.

The carp is the most interesting aspect of the Christmas celebration. There are carp sellers outside who sell live carp, which people then keep in their bathtubs until Christmas Eve. You can also ask the carp seller to kill the fish for you. I talked to several students about this. Some said their family has never taken home the carp live, others said they used to but everyone fought over who would have to kill the fish after they'd had it a couple days. And then there were some who said, "of course we keep the fish in our tub, why wouldn't we?" To which I really had no answer.

Carp Sellers out in Prague

Carp in the bathtub - to be clear, this is not our bathtub. I got this picture off Google.

NPR published an article about this tradition earlier this week, so if you'd like to know more, click here! The article is about Slovakia specifically, but many of the traditions are similar if not the same in the Czech Republic.

We are going to make the potato salad this year, but our bravery is not going to extend to the carp. We did buy some fish at the store which we intend to make in the same way, so we're going about 75% traditional.

The plan is to do a mix of Czech traditions (with the dinner tonight) and American traditions (still opening the majority of our presents on Christmas morning). My mom, step-dad, and sister are here to celebrate with us, and we are excited for our first Czech Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all our friends & family back home! We hope you have had a beautiful Christmas season, and that you continue to celebrate and relax in the Peace of our Lord.

In conclusion, here's a new version of a favorite Christmas song. Many of you have probably already seen it, but it's definitely worth watching again! (And if you don't have Pentatonix's Christmas album, you really should buy it.) Merry Christmas!