Caroline was in heaven all Mikulas evening, practicing her songs, opening her candy bags, walking to Namesti Miru with her friend Paige to meet the saint and his friends. She was proud that this year she was brave enough to face up to the kids dressed as devils, angels and the long bearded bishops who all seemed to sport hockey sticks wrapped in aluminum foil. This year she sang at their first request, first a Czech nursery rhyme, then her own Christmas song in English.
She sang in whispers by herself, but when she sang with her friend, their shyness disappeared and they belted out Rudolph to the last trio of the night, a grownup group in film studio costumes who blessed the girls and handed out yet another advent calendar (a Catholic edition with bible verses). As we walked away, the devil in their trio grabbed a ten-year-old and ran down the street with the boy flung over his shoulder. Mikulas followed in hot pursuit, advent calendars in one hand, hockey stick in the other.
4 comments:
Thank you posting this story. This is the first time I have heard of St. Mikulas. I also thought you might have given up on the blog. :)
Wow, I didn't know he came to the Czech Republic too. Interesting how the name changes.
Hi Tommy! I haven't posted for so long as incredibly swamped with work, but I couldn't miss telling our Mikulas (Nicolas) story.
The neat thing is that he is celebrated all over our part of Europe, but each country has its own variation. We don't have stockings here like they do in Germany (Christina's blog has pictures up), but instead Mikulas delivers his goodies in bags - plastic because we're fancy that way ;-).
I'm thinking what a dummy I was not to stock up on Lada calendars before I left...
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