How Christmas is Celebrated in Slovakia - Christmas around the globe

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Today we have the last guest post in the Christmas Around the Globe series. I hope you guys enjoyed learning more about how Christmas is spent in different parts of the world. If you care to join in email me!
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Hello everyone, my name is Petra, I come from Slovakia and I currently live in Slovenia. I run a blog named Slovakia in Slovenia, where I write about my life in Slovenia, the similarities and differences between these two countries, about their languages, life and other funny stuff.
How Christmas is celebrated in Slovakia
Thanks to Diana, I now have the opportunity to tell you a bit more about how we celebrate Christmas in my home country of Slovakia. As there is a lot to tell and explain, I summarized the most important thing into 8 points.

Slovak people usually decorate their Christmas tree no sooner than 1-3 days before Christmas

Although heavy Christmas decorations can be seen on houses and in cities, the actually decoration of Christmas tree happens only a few days before Christmas.

A visit of a Christmas market is a must

The majority of Slovak cities and towns host a Christmas market 4 or 5 weeks before Christmas. Typically, this is a good place for friends and families to gather and enjoy a Christmas punch and local Christmas cookies and meals.

Cookies, cakes and gingerbread

Baking is a very important part of Slovak celebration of Christmas. Christmas baking starts a few weeks before Christmas and is followed by a few days of decorating gingerbread. Some families make around 10 different kinds of Christmas cookies and gingerbread. These homemade Christmas baked are then eaten during Christmas days and offered to family and friends who come over for a visit.
Some Slovakian families make around 10 different kinds of Christmas cookies and gingerbread.

Christmas = cultural holiday celebrated by everybody

Christmas in Slovakia is celebrated by the vast majority of people regardless of their religion. It is perceived as a cultural holiday when majority of people are off work from Christmas until New Year's and spend their time with families and friends.

Christmas dinner consists of fish, potato salad and a lot of fruits and cakes.

The Slovak Christmas dinner is usually eaten on Christmas Eve at 6 o'clock and consists of several courses. It starts with eating wafers with honey, continues with fruits followed by the main course of fish and potato salad. The Christmas cooking varies heavily from region to region though.
Baked carp with potato salad

A nice walnut and star in an apple will bring you health

Slovak Christmas is associated with a lot old traditions and customs. One of them is, for example, eating a walnut during Christmas dinner. Each of the family members opens one walnut, and if the walnut is nice and good to eat, it indicates a good health for the family member for the following year. The same applies to a tradition of slicing an apple – if there is a shape of a star in the middle of a sliced apple, it promises a successful year to come as well.

People open Christmas presents on Christmas Eve

Unlike to other countries, Slovak people open their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve right after their Christmas dinner. Families gather around the Christmas tree and exchange presents, whereas small kids believe that the presents were brought by Ježiško (small Jesus). Slovak traditions do not know of the Santa figure.

Christmas Day and Boxing Day – relax and Christmas movies

The usual Slovak way of spending the 25th and 26th of December is relaxing, watching a lot of Christmas movies and visiting friends 

Hope you enjoyed my post. I will be happy if you visit my blog or social media for more posts: Facebook, Bloglovin, Instagram


Petra


This month's sponsor:
The Morrell Tale - Every life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers

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