Christmas Eve midnight mass at St. Vitus for limited number of believers

There is reported to have been a scramble for reservations for the Christmas Eve midnight Mass at St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague this year, due to the limited number of participants allowed to attend.

The permitted number of people has been reduced to 20 percent of the church's capacity in the current fourth stage of anti-epidemic measures.

The Vicar General of the Prague Archbishopric, Jan Balík, told Czech Radio that reservation tickets were handed out to 300 people free-of-charge and were gone within a matter of hours.

Churches around the country report a similar interest in attendance.

The government made an exemption to the night curfew in place on Christmas Eve in order to enable people to go to midnight mass.