Sv. Mikuláš

We visited my cousin in Dallas this weekend to celebrate St. Nicholas Day. She's involved with the Czech emigré community there and has helped organizing St. Nicholas -- or Sv. Mikuláš -- parties ever since her daughter was a baby.

On December 6, children in the Czech Republic are visited by St. Nicholas. He arrives clad in his bishop's robe and mitre and is accompanied by an angel and a devil. He carries a big book which has info about who's been naughty and nice. When he visits, older children often have to say a poem or sing a song. He then praises the children about their good deeds and points out some thing in which they should be improving. They then get a stocking with gifts -- traditionally gingerbread, peanuts, clementines, chocolate coins and such. If they have been naughty, they may also get a lump of coal or a potato or be threatened with deportation by the devil. I can still vividly remember my Mikulášes in Prague and what impression they made on me. It's much more intense then a visit with Santa at the Mall...

The party in Dallas was pretty authentic. There was a ton of Czechs with small children and quite a few non-Czech spouses, too. St. Nicholas and his entourage looked great -- their costumes had been made by my aunt Hanka who's done a lot of work for theater and TV productions and it shows. The devil was especially scary and energetic -- so much so that you occasionally could hear mothers trying to calm him down so that their kids wouldn't freak out.

Magda enjoyed the hub hub of being at a party, but she wasn't too thrilled with St. Nic or his sidekicks. Most of the time they were there, she clung to Jennifer, holding on for dear life. But St. Nicholas had mostly good things to say to her and she received a nice little stuffed dog that she now enjoys.