Christmas Eve in Bohemia
Christmas Eve below the Orlické hory (Podorlicko)
Ústí nad Orlicí is one of the great homes of the Czech painted nativity scene: cardboard figures by the hundred spread over mossy hills, a village on one side of the stable and a town on the other, added to by families year after year — and neighbours went round visiting each other’s betlémy. In Třebechovice a farmer’s gift of a little crib in 1885 grew into the famous mechanical betlém.
Around Česká Třebová the supper had mushroom or millet bake, peas cooked with no fat or salt “because Christ’s chalice was bitter too”, and odvárka — thin plum compote with raisins and nuts, made on St Thomas’s Day and not tasted before Christmas Eve. Mushrooms had to be on the table, because a poor widow had given them to Mary and Joseph on the way to Bethlehem.
Set up a nativity scene and let each family member add one figure of their own every year.
More Christmas Eves nearby
- Christmas Eve in the Highlands (Horácko)
- Christmas Eve around Hlinsko (Hlinecko)
- Christmas Eve in Chodsko
- Christmas Eve around Plzeň (Plzeňsko)
- Christmas Eve in the Šumava foothills (Pošumaví)
- Christmas Eve in Prácheňsko
- Christmas Eve in Doudlebsko
- Christmas Eve in Blata
- Czech Christmas Eve, hour by hour