OC HIGH: STUDENT NEWS AND VIEWS : exchanges : Different Traditions, Same Holiday Spirit

Camrin Christensen, a junior from Laguna Hills High School, is spending the school year as an American Field Service student in the Czech Republic, where she is living with a family of five. She attends the Secondary School of Nursing in Kolin, about 45 miles from Prague.

Here, she looks back on how the holidays went in her new country:

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It seemed like Christmas kind of crept up on me here in Kolin. Despite the fact that many shops had Christmas decorations up in October, I was not enveloped in the Christmas spirit as I usually am back home in California.

My family’s holiday observance started Dec. 24 with a walk to the cemetery. Here, we cleaned off the newly fallen snow, relit candles and placed a Christmas wreath on deceased relatives’ graves. It was a surprisingly unsolemn affair. When we returned, my family brought out their ornaments, and we decorated the Christmas tree.

My host-family has many interesting traditions that they perform Christmas Eve.

The first is taking heated lead and pouring it into water. The result is strange shapes that symbolize what is waiting for you in the coming year. The next was just for me. I took my slipper and threw it over my head. If it points to the door, it means you will be leaving home next year, for travel, marriage or whatever. The last tradition involved walnuts and candles. We made candles from walnut shell halves, lit them and set them afloat in the kitchen sink. The way they coupled or burned out determined what kind of intra-family relationships we would have.

Then we had our Christmas dinner of fried carp and potato salad.

There is a story behind the eating of carp: Like the California missions, castles were built by rivers for easy access to water. Meat was very hard to come by, so people had fish, primarily carp. Throughout the Czech Republic, for three or four days prior to Christmas, there now are special dealers who sell live carp in the town square.

After dinner, we sang Christmas carols. After about five minutes, someone rang a bell and we all went to the Christmas tree. While we were singing, Jeziesek, the Czech Santa Claus, delivered our presents from the balcony. We all opened our presents at the same time and then occupied ourselves with our new gifts until 11 o’clock. At that time, we left for the town cathedral’s midnight Mass.

On Christmas Day, we stayed at home, spending a quiet day together as a family.