St. Mikulas Day and Christmas in Prague

One of the more interesting things they do here in Czech Republic (and other countries) is the celebration of St. Nicholas Day. Here in CZ the name is Mikulas, hence the blog title.

Nicholas greets tourists. 

St. Nicholas goes around with an angel and a devil escorting him. They find little children in the small towns and the kids have to sing Christmas songs. If they sing the carols, they get candy from the angel. If they don't, well that is what the devil is for.

As I was downtown walking around this day, there were many people downtown participating in this and enjoying the Christmas markets. Several people went all out and had incredibly detailed and even frightening costumes. Prague has been a hot spot in the film industry for making movies, so occasionally Barrandov Studios will send out some people in costume. 

Creepy Krampus takes the time to pose with a fan.

Several of my coworkers were not fans of the monstrous representations. The traditional devil is more of a cutesie little baby imp type creature. Popular movies such as Krampus have influenced the representation I believe. Plus, Krampus himself is very popular in Germany, just one country away.



Everything about Christmas downtown is beautiful. All the streets are beautifully decorated and there is truly a magical feeling about walking around down there. Pair that will the amazing architechture and you get a wonderful experience. It's almost hard to believe that the percentage of atheists is so high here.

Our prayer for Prague is that they would see the real meaning of the season. Please join us in praying that for them. 

Old Town Square Christmas Markets

We are going to be taking the next couple of weeks off. We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!