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

Czechs love potato salads. They use it to make special sandwiches called “chlebicky,” but also just as a side to main dishes. A typical Christmas dinner includes a fish or pea soup and potato salad with fried carp or schnitzel.  It is hard to find a potato salad that tastes like the one from home. The recipe below truly represents the real potato salad you can find in the Czech Republic. Its great taste will really make you famous amongst Czech communities.

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

Our first free T-Shirt giveaway has come to a close. We have selected a winner and he/she was notified via email. Congratulations to the winner! Don’t worry if you did not win because we will have a new drawing soon. Our next item for free drawing was not selected yet but we believe our mug would be a popular item (CLICK HERE to view). Please, let us know your preferences in our comment form below. In January we plan to reveal our survey results with your feedback; however, we will continue to collect answers from our new readers. If you did not have a chance to answer our quick survey, you can do so now HERE.

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

In our latest series of Famous People, we mentioned the Czech singer Karel Gott. We also revealed that the next Czech Nightingale Award Show would be in December. Today, we can share with you the results of this popular Czech show, where Czech viewers cast their voices; thus, making this show sligthly comparable to the American TV show called American Idol.

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

If you look at this picture, you would say: “Oh, just another picture of Czech Christmas Cookies,” but you would overlook a significant detail. These cookies are crocheted out of wool and are only used for decoration! This great idea was accepted by many Czechs since they have a great opportunity to decorate their tables or trees without worrying about gaining extra pounds/kilograms during this calorie-enriched holiday season.

Renata Kuczerova, a businesswoman from Ostrava, started with a few pieces at first but her four children really loved them and inspired her to create this amazing collection. On the other hand, her husband was not very pleased. The cookies are also soaked in different fabric softeners (vanilla, coconut and others) to give them their original and mouth-watering scents.

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

Christmas is around the corner and we would like to give you a Thank You gift for being our loyal readers. We hope you like these festive T-shirts and that you would be interested in participating in our drawing. You don’t have to do anything if you are already our members/subscribers through email. If you are not registered yet, please fill out the form below with your email information, validate your email address and then check your email for our confirmation email.

On December 16^th, 2008, we will pick a winner and email him/her with our questions:* Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »