What a blessing to celebrate a safe and cozy Christmas here in the Czech Republic! The Czechs do it up right, spreading their holiday over three days.
We 4 Americans started Dec. 24 early with a trip to Kampa Island with our family friends, Jonasgang, to watch carp get released into the Vltava River. It's traditional to buy carp for Christmas dinner but save one in the bathtub until release time, which represents a gift of hope and freedom in the new year.
Our pics from Christmas Day will take a while to post; we're in Barcelona now with very limited internet and will be posting updates with an iPhone. Anyhoooo... Happy Holidays, peace, love and blessings!!!
We 4 Americans started Dec. 24 early with a trip to Kampa Island with our family friends, Jonasgang, to watch carp get released into the Vltava River. It's traditional to buy carp for Christmas dinner but save one in the bathtub until release time, which represents a gift of hope and freedom in the new year.
After watching the carp festivities, we walked the length of Kampa, stopping for hot drinks and collecting a larger and larger group of Jonasgang friends. There were loads of people out chatting and celebrating over mulled wine and sausages. Dogs, too!
ER took Cousin Lv and Seahawks on a detour to the Lennon Wall, which was nearby. Peace!
And then we joined back up with everyone for lunch at Olympia, an iconic Czech place. We ate so much that we only had soup for dinner later on.
To work off all that meat, we took Cousin Lv and Seahawk on the funicular up Petrin Hill and then walked back down- without leaves on the trees, the views were incredible! J got really muddy on the walk, so BW rinsed her off in a bathroom sink before church.
We attended Faith Community for the Christmas Eve service; it was lovely!
To cap off the day, we took one last walk through Old Town Square and headed home for soup and Scrabble :)
Our pics from Christmas Day will take a while to post; we're in Barcelona now with very limited internet and will be posting updates with an iPhone. Anyhoooo... Happy Holidays, peace, love and blessings!!!
Even though the situation is getting slightly better over the last few years thanks to education of the people, still many people buy live carp, have in a bath tub and "release" it in a river... but about 70 % of the fish are too starved, numb and tired that they won't make it and dye in the river.
ReplyDeleteThe whole time of being brought home, swimming in the tub (usually in too hot water for a fish which would normally be kind of hibernating in almost ice cold water at this time of the year) and be taken to the river is very stressful and demanding for the fish. One could almost say it's animal abuse. It's sad that many people still don't understand this.
The best way is to have the fish killed professionally by the seller right at the stand, it's quick and the fish would experience none of this.
By the way nice blog :)
Thanks for your comment; you make a valid point. As a gal who grew up fishing, I hadn't thought of it that way. Glad you read the post and hope to hear from you again. Happy holidays!
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