Czech New Year's table

Welcome to the last episode of the culinary series of the ABC of Czech. Having explored the Czech Christmas table last week, today we'll close the series with a look at the New Year's menu.

The New Year used to be a more important holiday before it became overshadowed by New Year's Eve festivities. For many Czechs New Year's Day is just a welcome day off they can use to cure themselves from overindulgence.

New Year's Eve is a party day. We have spoken about party food in this series, so on the New Year's Eve table you will find the Czech open faced sandwiches chlebíčky of various kinds, nuts oříšky, crisps (or chips) brambůrky and other snacks. The midnight is traditionally celebrated by drinking Champaign šampaňské, or rather some local brand of sparkling wine šumivé víno also known as sekt.

Some people still keep the tradition of eating a boiled pork head at midnight vepřový ovar with grated horseradish and apples se strouhaným křenem a jablky.

Those who are awake at lunchtime on New Year's Day should eat lots of lentils - čočka because in Czech tradition lentils symbolise money. And as Czechs say Jak na Nový rok, tak po celý rok - "As on New Year's Day so the whole year." Instead of lentils, some families cook broth - vývar with semolina - s krupicí - as a symbol of money.

We hope you've enjoyed the series and found it useful. The episodes will stay on our website both in sound and text and hopefully soon the sound will be there in downloadable format. But now it's time to say for the last time dobrou chuť - bon appetit!