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A brand new year is upon us - another year filled with new surprises, expectations, hopes and dreams, resolutions, love, laughs …

Our sincere wish is that your new year will be filled with everything that you wish for:
Peace in world relations, success in your business, freedom in your thoughts, love in your friendships and relationships, beauty in your creations and much more.

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Článek v ČEŠTINĚ dole (Klikněte na „Read the rest …“)

New Year’s celebrations are almost here. Would you like to prepare a special drink for this extraordinary occasion? How about punch? Both of the spirits below will keep you warm for a long time!

Recipe for New Year’s Eve punch:

Ingredients:
1 cup of water
120 grams (1/4 lbs) of granulated sugar
1 cup of red wine
1 cup of white wine
50 ml (1.7 fl oz) of lemon juice
60 ml (2 fl oz) of vodka or cherry vodka

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Článek v ČEŠTINĚ dole (Klikněte na „Read the rest …”)

As you may already know, Czechs and Slovaks eat carp on Christmas Eve as their main dish. Is this the only day that they eat fish then? Peter Gandalovic, Czech Agriculture Minister, started a project to encourage Czechs to eat more fish all year round. Apparently, the Czech Republic is one of the biggest producers of fish but it is a country with the lowest rates of fish consumption (we don’t have information about Slovakia). Moreover, recent news announced that Czech scientists will launch a three-year project to prove that carp meat will improve overall human health. Will these incentives change this sad statistics?

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Author: Lukáš Vrtílek

In today’s global world, it’s difficult to determine the origin of traditions in different countries because they already overlap each other. We can even see it in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Santa Claus, formerly known in English-speaking countries, is also known there. Some Czechs fear, however, that little Jesus will soon be replaced by the new and popular Santa Claus, which is already visible across the country. Will little Jesus be replaced by a new commercial symbol in a red jacket?

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Článek v ČEŠTINĚ dole (Klikněte na „Read the rest …”)
Another alcoholic beverage associated with Christmas in the Czech Republic and Slovakia is also very simple to prepare. Last time we introduced a recipe for mulled wine. Today you will only need rum (brandy or whisky) and some other items you already have at home. Our recipe shows just one of many ways you can prepare “Grog” - a drink originally prepared by British sailors.

Recipe for Grog:

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Birkenau

It has been more than half a century since World War II ended. There are fewer and fewer people in the world that can describe what they experienced during these tough times. Stories about German concentration camps are almost forgotten or even dismissed as exaggerated or even fabricated. One Czechoslovak Jewish citizen lives today to tell you that the camps existed and her tattoo with her ID number remains as a reminder of her traumatic experience. Her name is Alice and she moved to the USA along with her children that are now in their 50s. This year they spent Christmas separately but Alice was still present in a way - they watched her interview named “Shoah” (Holocaust) that describes her experiences prior, during, and after her stay at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

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We hope this Christmas enriches your life;
May each day be happy and bright,
Overflowing with pleasure and love;
May your Christmas be filled with delight.

By Karl Fuchs

Článek v ČEŠTINĚ dole (Klikněte na “Read the rest …“)

It has been a long tradition that Czechs and Slovaks drink hot wine in the winter. They would tell you that Christmas is associated with this beverage. Everywhere you go you can smell the wonderful scent of cinnamon, cloves and red wine. How to prepare this drink? The recipe is very simple and I bet that you have all the ingredients at home.

Recipe for Czech and Slovak mulled wine:

Ingredients:
1 bottle of red wine (Merlot, Shiraz, or what you like)
1 cinnamon bark (you can also use ground cinnamon, but add in small quantities according to taste)
1 teaspoon of cloves (you can also use ground cloves, but add in small quantities according to taste)
Sugar (white or brown) or honey
Lemon or lemon peel to for decoration

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Clanek v CESTINE dole (Kliknete na “Read the rest …”)

Czech and Slovak Christmas used to be associated with simple decorations. Every family in a village would use just wooden or paper decorations to decorate their trees. Still, these simple items would make the holidays very festive. This year we decided to follow one of the Czech and Slovak traditions - baking our own decorations from flour and salt. The preparation was very simple and the dough was flexible allowing us to create many objects of different shapes. The dough became very hard once our pieces were dry.

We have to admit that our candle holder design was truly original and that we are not sure how the traditional Czech and Slovak centerpiece should look; however, we believe that the more imagination you have the more it will make your Christmas special.

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Článek v ČEŠTINĚ níže. 

In our recent article we mentioned that Christmas time in the Czech Republic was always associated with beautiful music and fairy tales played on our national television. Today, we have selected our top ten music videos that remind us of the real Czech Christmas atmosphere. How many of them do you know? You can answer this question in our poll below.

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V našem nedávném článku jsme se zmínili o tom, že vánoční čas v České republice byl vždy spojen s krásnou hudbou a pohádkami, které se hrály v naši národní televizi. Dnes jsme vybrali deset nejlepších hudebních videí, které nám připomínají skutečnou českou vánoční atmosféru. Kolik jich znáte? Na tuto otázku nám můžete odpovědět v naší anketě níže.

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Clanek v CESTINE dole (Kliknete na “Read the rest …”)

Who would not know Woody Allen, a well-known director, actor, comedian and musician? He claims that his musical inclinations are as good as golfing techniques of weekend players, but his performance in the Congress Center in Prague confirmed that he is perhaps talented since his concert was nearly sold out. Allen flew to Prague on his private plane with his wife Soon-Yi and his children. Before visiting Prague, he concerted in Dresden, and after his concert in Prague he will continue in Budapest, Amsterdam, Florence and Warsaw. The Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, had a great chance to meet this gifted man in person too.

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Clanek v CESTINE dole (Kliknete na “Read the rest …”)

Arabela

Czech and Slovak televisions did not have many channels during communism. That did not matter during the Christmas season because they played fairy tales and family movies all day long. Many Czechs and Slovaks abroad probably know: Arabela, Pan Tau, Letajici Cestmir, O Sipkove Ruzence, Princezna ze Mlejna and more. Today all these movies are sold back in the Czech Republic and Slovakia for cheap but you still have to deal with shipping costs and delays during busy holiday seasons. Now you don’t have to.

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