Christmas in Liptovsky Hradok

This Christmas I spent with my friend Terka and her family in the village of Liptovsky Hradok. Slovaks have some really great Christmas traditions that I enjoyed. Terka and her brother, Rasto (aka Rusty), picked me up Christmas Eve and we drove to their house. Terka's mom had been cooking a huge meal all day long, and took a quick break to go to church. The 3 of us went to the Christmas Eve service, which was cute. Everyone was involved in the service, kind of like at home. The children of the congregation formed a choir and sang a few songs, the adult choir sang, and several people played instruments, and of course the old people in the congregation were singing at the top of their lungs! I also got to see some of my students outside of school in their "natural" habitat.

(This picture is of Krivan and the High Tatras)

After church we came back for a quick visit with Terka's aunt and her family because they live right across the street. Then we went back to their house and got ready for a meal to rival any
Thanksgiving spread. The meal started with a clove of garlic to represent the bitter times to come, and an oblatky with honey to symbolize the sweet times. This portion was followed with a loaf of potato bread to symbolize wealth. The second course was dried peas, which traditionally was also fed to the farm animals, so they could participate in the festivities. For the third course we had Kapustnica the best soup ever! It's cabbage soup, and takes on different forms depending on the region of Slovakia. This one was sour cabbage, potatoes, and forest mushrooms, which was cooked together with the meat for the main course. After the Kapustnica was the main course, which was fish, but not the traditional Christmas Carp, pork and turkey. Also served with this was potato salad, which reminded me of a 4th of July picnic, more potato bread, and the rest of the dried peas. (Liptovsky Hradok and the Low Tatras)

The 4th course was prune soup, which was made of prunes in a creamy broth. It sounded a little gross to me, but it wasn't too bad. It's not my favorite, but it was ok. All of this was followed by desert called opikance, a sweet bread pudding served with poppy seeds and warm milk and butter poured over the top. Opikance is what they call it in the Liptov region and I think in North Central Slovakia, and the name changes by the region. (Liptovsky Mikulas and Liptovska Mara as seen from Hradok)

After the meal we went into the living room and opened up presents. I got a pen with Alzbetka on it, and Terka's mom made me a little house decoration. The thing I really enjoyed about Slovak Christmas is it really is more about being together and less about what you receive from others. Christmas presents are not the main focus of the evening. Speaking of presents, it was interesting trying to explain that my family opens our gifts Christmas Eve because they know that most Americans open their presents Christmas morning. That's when I got to respond with, well my family has more European holiday traditions than American ones!

Christmas day we got up, went to church again, and then made the rounds. We went to another small village to see one of Terka's friend's kids in their Christmas play. Then we went to another one of her friend's apartments for a name day party. Eva has a name day Christmas day, and so Terka's friend was having a party at her apartment. My students Maria and Maria were also there, and it was fun to see them again. They also helped translate all of the traditional Czech movies that we were watching. It was cool because they were really good about keeping me included in the conversation. (Terka and me)

I spent the next few days of my break in Martin with Miska and her family. It was really fun! Miska's mom took us dress shopping for the upcoming ball in January. Earlier we had went around Mikulas looking for something, but weren't successful, then we went to a few shops in Martin and also didn't find anything. Then the 3 of us went to Zilina to go shopping, and it was great fun! Miska and I tried on so many dresses. Of course we tried on ugly dresses and had a lot of laughs, but both of us after a long and exhausting search, we both found gorgeous dresses! My visit to Miska's was nice and relaxing and it was fun to hang out with her parents and just chill!

These pictures are of Terka's mom, dad, grandma (starka), Rusty and me.