December 19: Time to Buy Your Carp!

Christmas in Prague | Image credit: Sebduggan

If you lived in the Czech Republic, today would be a good day to head out to the Christmas market on the main town square and buy a live carp -- which you then bring home to swim in your bathtub. Don’t worry, he won’t be there long, just until he becomes dinner on Christmas Eve.

You might not think of carp as the tastiest holiday treat, but this is an important part of Czech culture. Czechs have been raising carp in ponds all over the country since medieval times. In the past, carp might be the only meat a poorer family could get. The tradition of eating carp for Christmas Eve dinner is a bit more recent, going back a century or two.

Letting the fish swim in your bathtub for a while cleans the muddy pond water out of his system. One of my friend’s families named their carp “Karel” every year. When it was time for Karel to become dinner, her family first soaked his meat in milk, then breaded it, fried it, and served it with potato salad. The tradition is also to keep one of the carp’s scales as good luck into the new year.

Are you ready to replace your Christmas ham or turkey with some fried fish? This video gives a good look at this quirky Czech tradition.