Christmas exhibition presents typical Czech Christmas
Advent is a time when most Christmas exhibitions open throughout the Czech Republic to make people stop in the pre-Christmas hustle and bustle and think about the spiritual values of the season. One such exhibition opened last week at the Ceska sporitelna bank premises in the centre of Prague. Alena Skodova went along and brings this report:
When I arrived in the basement of the building, I could feel the Christmas atmosphere everywhere. With carols resounding, decorated trees, dozens of nativity scenes made of all kinds of materials and lights of many types created a perfect image of a typical Czech Christmas. And that's also the main message of the exhibition, as its organizer, Blahoslav Lukavec confirmed:
"This is already the 23rd exhibition of this kind. We started organizing it back in the year 1980, at a time when Czechoslovakia still was in a firm totalitarian grip, and we did it with one aim: as a kind of protest against the Russian 'Father Frost'. Although I did not believe we could continue after the Velvet Revolution, we do - and today we protest against Western Santa Claus. We have our 'Baby Jesus' who hands out Christmas presents and we have beautiful Czech customs, so the main aim of the exhibition is to make people realize that the typical Czech Christmas has its own spell."
Mr. Lukavec explained to me that each year the exhibition has one theme to concentrate on. Last year it was bells and this year, it's light. That's also why it is called 'The Bethlehem Light":
"We want to show visitors old ways of lighting. The fact that today we come home, turn the button and the light is on is a reality only several decades old, but before it was quite complicated to light up the room. To 'tame' fire and not to put it out at the same time was not easy, and we want to demonstrate it on various kinds of pine torches and hanging fire-places. We also present lanterns and lamps that gave light with candles, or used to be filled with oil or petroleum."
Part of the exhibition is also a "carvers' symposium", which will last for the whole week. Carvers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia came to Prague to carve figures and objects related to Christmas or with the theme of light right before the eyes of visitors, because another objective of the 'Bethlehem Light' is to inspire people for making at least part of Christmas decorations in their homes by themselves.
The exhibition, where you can also buy Christmas tree decorations and small gifts to please your relatives and friends, is open daily till January 6th.
