All About Czechia & Slovakia

December 09, 2024

🎄Christmas in Slovakia🎄

In Slovakian Happy/Merry Christmas is "Veselé Vianoce".

Slovaks celebrate Christmas from the evening of December 24, when Christmas Eve dinner is served and Christmas gifts are opened after dinner. At midnight, Slovaks take part in the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass. The celebration of Christmas continues on December 25 with the Feast of the Nativity Jesus.

Christmas Market Tour of Bratislava

From November 23, the most beautiful part of Bratislava will turn into a fairytale Christmas market. Until December 22, the Old Town smells of various delicacies and sounds with Christmas carols. It fills with a lot of people and good cheer. It is open from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. Around 100 booths are opened every year. (See Videos of Slovak Xmas Food)

Bratislava Christmas Market 2024 | Street Food in Bratislava, Slovakia (VIDEO)

Christmas Tram Tunnel on Skalná Street under Bratislava Castle, Bratislava.

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS IN SLOVAKIA (VIDEO)

Christmas in Slovakia is a lot different than Christmas in the USA!

Christmas Slovak folk in the 1960s: In the past, people found a christmas tree in the forest and brought it home. It was decorated on Christmas eve to be fresh. It usually hung from the ceiling above the table. Nowaday people buy artificial, fresh-cut or potted trees. They decorate it one week before Christmas Eve.

The hanging tree from the farmhouse ceiling in Myjava, Slovakia.

Christmas Slovak folklore story in Vranov nad Topľou, Slovakia.

What Christmas Eve looked like in the past. (VIDEO)

Angel, St.Nicholas and Devil.

December 6th is an important day in slovakia known as saint nicholas day. He goes by many names: Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, but in Czechia he’s Svatý Mikuláš. Early in December Svatý Mikuláš along with Čert and Anděl (the Angel and a devil-like character known as “krampus.”) go around to all the kids and ask them if they have been good that year. The kids then recite a poem or sing a song. If they have been good they get a treat of fruit, candy, or a small toy from the angel. If they were naughty then the devil would give them, not coal since that was worth something, but a rotten potato! Sometimes if the kid was particularly naughty that year, then the devil would threaten to toss them into his sack and take them with him. Unlike Santa Claus, Svatý Mikuláš doesn’t deliver the children’s gifts on Christmas — that is the baby Jesus’ job in Czechia and Slovakia.

KRAMPUS - March of the Evils of Piešťany Town in Slovakia. (VIDEO)

Who Is Krampus? | National Geographic (VIDEO)

What slovaks eat Christmas Eve dinner?

Cabbage soup, fish, sausage, potato salad, poppy seeds, wafers with honey, garlic, and apple.

Strange Fact: In Poland, Czechia and Slovakia, they have christmas carp that live in the bathtub for a day or two before they are eaten. Carps are sold on the streets from big tanks.

Fried carp with traditional potato-mayo salad. The Slovak word for Christmas carp is "kapr". Carp is a traditional Christmas meal in Slovakia and other Central and Eastern European countries. The tradition of eating carp at Christmas Eve dinner dates back to the 13th century.

"Kapustnica" A sauerkraut soup that's often made with sausage and dried mushrooms. The recipe varies by region and can include potatoes, plums, apples, or smoked meat. Yummy on a freezing winters!

Breaking the Oplatky: During the Christmas Eve meal, a significant moment arrives when family members share and break the “oplatky.” These are thin, unleavened wafers embossed with religious scenes. Each person breaks off a piece of oplatky and shares it with everyone else, while exchanging well wishes and expressing forgiveness and love.

24th December (Christmas Eve). The Slovak words for Christmas Eve are literally "bountiful eve" and the bounty of this sacred evening lies in the wide range of festive dishes, of which there had to be twelve different kinds. Even today many Slovak families must have on the Christmas table garlic (to ward off demons), honey, wafers, nuts, cooked peas or French beans, dried fruit, and the main dish, cabbage soup with mushrooms and "opekance" small pieces of dough with poppy seed and honey. At the beginning of this century, fish has become the traditional meat served during Christmas Eve (their scales are said to bring wealth into the house) in the Catholic portion of the population while the Lutherans would add smoked meats and sausage to their cabbage soup. Christmas holidays are also very rich in Slovak pastries and baked goods that are prepared over many evenings during the month of December.

Slovak Christmas Sweets

Walnut Crescent Cookies or Vanillekipferl (Vanilkové mesiačiky), Bear paws (Medvedie labky), Linzer cookies (Linecké kolieska) and Poppy seed roll (makovník).