Christmas for Anne in Slovakia

Christmas for Anne in Slovakia

As you know, many Canadians – and people the world over – celebrate Christmas today, on what we call “Christmas Eve.”

https://flamingosschool.com/when-do-people-celebrate-christmas-in-various-countries-around-the-world/

For my wife Anne’s family December 25 was a mere afterthought, a day to recover from the previous day’s festivities. December 24 was THE day.

Anne’s family is made up almost entirely of Carpathian Germans.

Who on earth are Carpathian Germans?

Germans settled in the Hauerland region of Slovakia in several waves, primarily between the 12th and 15th centuries.

Anne’s ancestors were invited by Charles IV (1316-1378), a pivotal King of Bohemia (as Charles I) and Holy Roman Emperor, known as the “Father of the Nation” in the Czech Republic.

The copy of the treaty that was signed between him and the Prussian king is in a museum in Bratislava. This treaty gave her ancestors the right to keep their language and culture. The treaty was honoured until the end of WWII. That is why her parents’ schooling was in German even though they lived in the middle of Slovakia.

Anne’s mother came from the village of Tužina, which was specifically established by German settlers in 1336 to exploit local gold deposits. Both her mother’s family and her father’s remained in their villages for nearly 600 years.

Anne’s family emigrated from Slovakia to Vancouver soon after the Soviet invasion of their country in 1968 because her mother’s brother sponsored them. They had $40 to their name. The government let them exchange $10 per person.

Almost the entire extended family emigrated to Germany. Anne’s mother decided to go all the way to Canada rather than to Germany!

Here is a fascinating and sometimes hilarious account of Christmas (December 24) in Anne’s home village of Malinová provided at my request by her older sister, Gertrude:

“When it comes to the Christmas season when Anne and I were growing up in Slovakia, the Carpathian German traditions were very different from what we confronted here when we arrived with no knowledge of English in 1968.

The first holiday was on December 6th; St Nicolas day. He brought presents for the children, usually just small things: nuts, apples with coins stuck into them. These were delivered (I found out when I was older) by our grandmother. She had them all in her apron. She came behind our door, rang a bell, cracked the door open a little and let her apron go, so all the goodies scattered all over the floor. We, of course, ran around picking up all the goodies.

A week later was Lucifer day. This was a day when all the trouble-maker little boys were picked up by older boys, put into sacks and taken behind the village. The little boys then had to find their way home in the dark. Many started to behave after that experience. [This is my favourite of all the stories]

Actual Christmas was celebrated on the 24th of December.

The first thing that we did was to have a bath. In our village, we had no running water. So we had to get buckets of water from the creek, warm it up on the stove and then pour it into a small bathtub. All four of us had a bath in the same water, in the sequence of youngest to oldest. I imagine that Father was actually dirtier after he finished with the bath. Especially since this was the only bath between about September and May when we could finally go and bathe in the creek.

After that we waited for the church bells to ring. The house had to be dark until then. When the church bells rang, the lights were turned on in the entire house and stayed on all night. Then we went in for supper. Since we were Catholic, no meat was allowed until after midnight. The main course was cut up bread with hot milk poured over it and covered with a mixture of poppyseeds with sugar. One other course was raw garlic dipped in honey. Fish marinated in vinegar, sugar and onions was also served. A complete mishmash of flavours as you can tell.

It was believed that whatever was on the Christmas table, there would be plenty of it all next year. So the table featured grain, apples, pear, nuts … but especially everybody’s wallet with as much money as you could get stuffed in.

After dinner it was time to open presents. They were usually very simple, something that one really needed. They were ostensibly brought by Baby Jesus.

Then it was time to go Christmas caroling to all the relatives in the village, ending up at the grandparents’ house.

When we were older, we went to midnight mass and came home to a meal of cabbage soup with mushrooms and ham.

December 25th was a non-event. Many of the villagers nursed vodka hangovers, especially the men, and most of all our father!

I hope this helps in picturing Christmas in Slovakia when we were little.”

A little side note. Anne has told these stories for years. I never tire of them. Now that her brain tumour and cancer treatments have deprived Anne of the capacity to speak, her kind sister Gertrude has stepped up as the designated storyteller.

Soon I will implore Gertrude to tell me more stories about Pán Boh, Mr. God.