As many of our friends know, Sybille and I have birthdays that are just two days, but several years 🙂 apart. 24th February for Sybille – 26th February for me. Our usual plan is to have a joint celebration on the intervening day, which is what we successfully managed to do last Wednesday. However, sometimes the liturgical calendar conspires against us. The last time our birthdays respectively fell on a Tuesday and a Thursday, as they did this year, was in 2009. Then the intervening day was Ash Wednesday 🙁
Whilst attending the Christmas Party at the British Embassy last December, we met Paul and Michaela, a British/Czech couple who have a business with the interesting name of ‘The Happy Monkey s.r.o.’ Their company run a butchers shop, another butchers shop combined with a bar – Maso a kobliha / Meat and doughnuts, together with an upmarket dégustation restaurant entitled Sansho. As a special treat to mark our birthdays, we booked a table at Sansho for the evening of Wednesday 25th February.
When we arrived at 18.30, surprisingly we were the only customers. However, that soon changed as more people arrived. Apparently most evenings, if you want a table at Sansho, you need to book in advance.
Knowing it was our joint birthdays, Paul kindly presented us with aperitifs – this interesting green cocktail for Sybille and a glass of Prosecco for me. The courses that followed are better illustrated by Sybille’s photographs rather than by my wordy descriptions.
We washed all of this down with a very quaffable rosé wine.
Our dessert, as can be seen in the photograph at the beginning of this post, came complete with two candles. We did blow them out before consuming!
The total cost was around five times what we would normally pay in one of our local bar-restaurants for an evening meal with wine. But the quality of the food, the ambience of the location, and the high standard of service, more than justified the expense.
For this special occasion, Sybille honoured her promise to me when we made our booking, and wore a dress. In return, I wore my suit with a shirt and tie. But I’m afraid I don’t have a photograph to post as Sybille always wants to be behind the camera, rather than in front of it. So instead, here is a photograph from nearly three years ago with Sybille in the same dress and me wearing the same suit and tie, though with a different shirt.
As Monday 16th February dawned cold, but fine and sunny, Sybille suggested that we should take advantage of the weather on my day-off, and pay our first visit of 2015 to Prague Zoo. Here is an illustrated account of our most enjoyable day out.
Prague Zoo lies directly opposite from where we live in Podbaba, on the other side of the Vltava River. As there is no immediate bridge, the only way to get there is by ferry. So we walked down to the Podbaba bus stop and took the bus, two stops to Podbabe from where the ferry departs.
Here we are, approaching the arrival and departure point of the ferry at Podhorí, on the other side of the river. I love the sticker that declares that this small boat is part of the Prague Integrated Transport System 🙂
There is a half-hourly bus service from Podhorí to the zoo entrance, but as it would have been a twenty minute wait, we decided to walk instead. Upon arrival at the zoo entrance, we paid our admission fee, (CZK 200 for Sybille and CZK 150 for me, as being between aged 60 and 69, I am deemed to be ‘senior’ 🙂 ), and then set off to explore. My apologies that I took the photograph above, as we were leaving in the late afternoon, hence the metal gates across the entrance!
Here are a variety of creatures that we met during our visit.
On 18th December 2011, aided by several members of the Prague Anglican congregation, we held the first ever English-language Anglican service in Brno – a Service of Lessons and Carols for Christmas. Since the beginning of 2012, I have conducted a regular monthly service in Brno, usually on the second Sunday evening of each month, along with an additional service each year, on the evening of Easter Day.
As I explained in my post entitled ‘Holy Week and Easter Day 2014 in Prague and Brno‘, in March 2014, we suddenly lost the use of our previous Brno worship venue. Fortunately, the Roman Catholic Jesuits came to our rescue, offering us the use of the most appropriately named ‘Upper Room’. This is my long-promised post about our new Brno worship venue.
‘The Upper Room’, is part of Kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie. Access to it is through the door seen here at the bottom right of this photograph, on the corner of Jezuitská and Mozartova, Brno. There then follows the only slight drawback to our new worship venue – having to climb up two floors via a stone spiral staircase. This does mean that it is wheelchair unfriendly and somewhat difficult for toddlers in buggies.
However, once up the stairs, everything else is ideal. ‘The Upper Room’ has a fairly low ceiling, together with excellent heating, meaning that it is warm in winter! It is not overly large, so that the current relatively small congregation doesn’t rattle in it but gives us the right amount of room into which to grow. Then there is an excellent electronic keyboard, seen on the left of the photograph below, which Ailsa our keyboard player, says is better than the one in our previous venue! At the back of the room, there are simple kitchen facilities, allowing us to share refreshments together following worship. And at the top of the stairs, just outside the room, is a most useful toilet.
As you can see, it being a Roman Catholic Chapel belonging to the Jesuits, we are overlooked by statues of St Francis Xavier & St Ignatius Loyola, whilst behind the altar is a painting depicting the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven, a doctrine without Biblical foundation. But beggars can’t be choosers and the Brno Jesuits have been wonderfully hospitable towards us.
Anglicans often describe themselves as the Via media, the middle way and as a bridge between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. By borrowing Kostel sv Kliment from the main Czech Protestant Church in Prague and ‘The Upper Room’ from the Roman Catholic Jesuits in Brno, I believe we are a very practical expression of being that Via media. And because we do not own our own places of worship, we can concentrate on being what ‘the Church’ should be – the worshipping people of God.
Since May 2014, monthly Brno services have moved to being held at 17.00 on the first Sunday of each month. Full details, including a map, can be found on the Brno page of our Church website.
This is a post that I’ve been compiling in my mind for quite some time. So with Valentine’s Day being less than two weeks away, the time has come to commit it to writing and the public domain.
The genesis of this post was seeing more than one comment on social media in late November, of American friends of Americans newly arrived here in Prague, actually asking, ‘Do Czechs celebrate Thanksgiving?’ Another, asking an American teacher in an international school here, whether he had the day off for Thanksgiving.
I do appreciate that these comments and questions, came from some of the approximately 60% of Americans who do not hold a passport and have therefore never set foot outside their own country. I did enjoy the response of another American teacher working here in Prague, when I mentioned these comments to her. She said that it made her ‘want to face-palm’ and that clearly those who asked ‘needed to go back to second-grade Social Studies classes’. As always, I was glad that was said by an American and not by me 😉
But I use this particular example to illustrate the important point that, if you choose to live and work in another country, you cannot expect the citizens of that country, to mark and celebrate the same things as are celebrated in your own nation.
This does not mean that if you move abroad, you cannot still celebrate festivals that are important to you. Staying with American Thanksgiving, I’ve twice had the privilege of being invited by an American woman married to a Czech man and living here, to a Thanksgiving meal she has laid on for her husband and their friends. Another American woman has told me that she does a similar thing and is grateful that finding the ingredients she wants for a Thanksgiving Dinner, is far easier now than it was when she first arrived in the Czech Republic, fifteen years earlier!
I must say that the Americans that I know living here in Prague, clearly were listening in their second-grade Social Studies classes and fully appreciate why Czechs do not celebrate Thanksgiving. But I do hear expressions of regret from both American and British expats living here, that there is very little marking of either Halloween or Valentine’s Day in the Czech Republic. For to most Czech people, both are seen as foreign imports and not part of Czech culture. And as far as I am concerned, long may that be the case.
As I’ve previously written on this blog, I have a serious aversion to the celebration of Halloween. Why do parents encourage their children to do silly things on 31st October each year, that they spend the other 364 days of the year, actively discouraging them from doing???? Quite honestly, the way Halloween is marked these days in both the USA and the UK, is more a celebration of that which is basically evil, rather than celebrating all that is good.
‘Halloween’, is a corruption of ‘All Hallows Eve’, ‘All Hallows Day’ being the archaic name of what is now known as ‘All Saints Day’ – 1st November. And despite the high level of agnosticism in the Czech Republic, the custom here over the period 31st October – 2nd November (All Souls Day), is to visit the graves of deceased relatives in order to lay flowers and light candles. To remember and give thanks, for ‘those we love but see no longer’.
Therefore in Czech supermarkets in October each year, rather than shelves of cheap Halloween tat, instead you will see shelves full of outdoor votive candles for sale. If in the evening in early November, you pass by a Czech cemetery, you will see a sea of flickering lights – quite an amazing and moving sight. Far preferable as far as I am concerned, to seeing children or adults dressed up in ugly costumes, seeking to frighten people.
In contrast to Halloween, I have no problem with couples using Valentine’s Day, as the occasion to celebrate their loving relationship. But it isn’t a Czech tradition and nor does it need to be. For Czech people already have a lovers day – 1st May. Particularly here in Prague, the tradition on the 1st May each year, is for couples to walk up Petrín Hill and declare their love for each other, standing under one of the many trees in blossom at that time. When you have such a tradition, why do you need another one?
However, the way Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the UK, is real bonus for hotels here in Prague. The period from early January to late March each year, is what I often refer to as the ‘non-tourist season’ – the opportunity to walk around the centre of the city without there being hordes of tourists. But with Valentine’s Day falling right in the middle of this period, offering a romantic weekend in Prague to British couples, is an excellent way to improve hotel occupancy rates during a lean period of the year 🙂
As an expat living here in the Czech Republic, I’m very happy to embrace Czech celebrations and culture. To experience something that is different, rather expecting everything to be the same and globalised. No – Czechs don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, Halloween or Valentine’s Day. And my question always is, ‘Why on earth should they?’
Today, 25th January, is kept in the Christian calendar as the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. This year, 25th January is a Sunday, and Church practice is that the readings set for a Feast Day, normally take precedence over those set for the Sunday – in this case, those set for the Third Sunday of Epiphany. So it was that this morning, we celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, with the account of his conversion recorded in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 9, being our first reading. And if you want to listen to my sermon from today, you can do here.
This is the second time during my time in Prague, that the the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul has fallen on a Sunday. The previous occasion was six years ago on 25th January 2009, a few months after my arrival here in late September 2008. That service six years ago, has remained long in my memory for reasons I will explain.
Being an English-speaking congregation based at a central location in a popular tourist destination, nearly every Sunday we have visitors from across the world, joining us for worship. Frequently among the visitors, are fellow ordained priests and ministers. But because they are nearly always in mufti, unsurprisingly since they are on holiday, I only get to know of their presence when speaking to them at the Church door after the service when they usually reveal themselves 🙂
Almost without exception, they express great appreciation for the service and the pleasure for once of being able to be part of the congregation, rather than being up-front. If married, the pleasure of being able to worship sitting alongside their spouse. The latter sentiment is one Sybille and I fully concur with as it is something we both enjoy on the rare occasions we are able to do so.
However, Sunday 25th January 2009, when the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul previously fell on a Sunday, was the occasion when I had to preach with two bishops in the congregation – Bishop Mike Klusmeyer of the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, and Bishop Jonathan Gledhill, the Church of England Bishop of Lichfield. The only consolation was that I did know of their presence in advance of the service, though in the case of Bishop Jonathan, only ten minutes beforehand.
But as well as being episcopally listened to and observed, the events of that day and the week that followed, were the catalyst for the beginning of this blog. The first post describing what happened, wasn’t finally published until ten days after that Sunday. But in many respects, rather than ten days hence on 4th February 2015, today is the sixth birthday of ‘Ricky Yates – An Anglican in Prague’.
Little did I know what I was starting and I now look back in staggered amazement at what has happened here, over the past six years. This is post number 304. The blog now attracts between 70 – 90 visitors a day. When there is a new post, visitor numbers promptly rise – for example on 19th January when I last published a new post here, there were 140 visitors.
I’ve met people at the Church door who have told me that they came to Church because they’ve read my blog. I’ve met a couple of people in one of our local bar-restaurants, who on discovering my name, immediately told me that they read my blog. Six years ago, not in my wildest dreams did I ever expect any of this to happen.
So on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul 2015, I thank God for his life, teaching and example. I also thank God for Ananias, for his faithfulness and obedience, without which, Paul’s conversion would not have happened. And I thank God for the way this blog has both become such an important component of my life and how it is appreciated and enjoyed by so many people.
