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December 14 In a strange sort of way I am starting to get into the Christmas mood. No, I didn’t see any Christmas lights this evening and no, Bing Crosby isn’t playing on the radio. Rather, the Carp sellers were out today in full force! Czechs eat Carp for Christmas dinner. “After all, a fish is a symbol for Christians, right?” Czechs like to say. Now, why Carp as opposed to some other fish is eaten is anyone’s guess. Nevertheless, it’s a fun tradition that I (and especially my boys) enjoy. Just
today, while walking home, we noticed that lots of people were already buying
their Christmas Carp. Option #2 is for the Purist. After picking out the carp of choice, the buyer is then given his carp in a plastic bag where he takes it home to his bathtub to swim around till Christmas Eve. I think we will stick with Option #1. |
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The
carp are all alive, swimming around in these enormous plastic tubs. As we
walked up, we noticed that shopping went like this. For the contemporary Czech,
option #1 was the choice. That is, one picks out the Carp, the Carp-seller nets
the fish, and then lays the flopping fish on a bloody table. Then, holding the
squirming fish in one hand, he takes a wooden mallet in the other and
“SMASH” ... lights-out for the fishie. He then cleans the Carp right before your
eyes in a matter of minutes. The carp-seller is even so kind to throw in the
head for free! After all, there is fish-head soup which is supposedly a great
Christmas Eve appetizer ... aah!