Pre-Christmas Gift Exchanges

The bustle of the holiday season has once again dawned upon us. Even though over here in the Czech Republic they do not traditionally celebrate either of the first of the holidays on the American calendar, my fellow ex-patriots and I have been toiling diligently to change that fact.

All Hallows’ Eve arrived first. Now, this holiday is not one unknown to the Europeans. However, instead of gathering with friends around miniature princesses and goblins, the Czechs pilgrimage with their families to the graves of their ancestors and pass the day sprucing them up and remembering those gone before. In a way, it seems to be a silent protest against those who would wish to rewrite the history books in order to lessen the turmoil that has engulfed this region for decades. It is a refusal to deny their past. At the same time however, there exists a great push not to remain stuck in what has gone before. And so it was with eager smiles that the Czechs and other international students swapped holidays with us. In exchange for us learning about All Saint’s Day, we attempted to share a little about Halloween. Step one: everyone had to knock and give the proper Halloween greeting for trick-or-treating in order to enter. (Needless to say, the chant that rolls off the tongues of toddlers back in the States took some practice for our foreign friends for whom many English is a second language.) Then, it was over to the pumpkins: scrapping out the gooey seeds, designing scary faces, and brandishing the carving knives. Lightening these at midnight, we culminated the evening by dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” with homemade cider in our “zombie” hands. If the fact that those who took the pumpkins home kept them for two extra weeks says anything, I think it was overall a success that we can expect to glimpse popping up throughout Germany, Turkey, Australia, Spain, Poland, and of course the Czech Republic in the years to come.

Unknowingly, we had created a great demand for the holidays to arrive and since, Christmas was still a ways, we decided to attempt a Czech Thanksgiving. After all, the pilgrims were European, right? We figured they wouldn’t mind… Anyways, after an evening of food and festivities enjoyed with the family of friends God has given me here, everyone went home adorned with crafted turkey and pilgrim hats covering sleepy eyes that were closing as their full bellies set in.

Such cultural exchanges have been continuous here, living in a foreign country surrounded by hundreds of other international students from every spot your finger could find to land were you to spin a globe blindfolded. They go beyond grand celebrations and holiday evenings. For instance, this week, the Czechs and the Americans swapped celebrities. The latter presented a thirty minute version of what it means to be an American before all of the international students while attempting to include facets beyond the stereotypes and images that have preceded our personal voyages across the great pond. In exchange, the Czechs introduced us to the President of their country Václav Klaus. Though the Americans received the far better gift in this swap, we are determined not to give up. The holidays have only begun. Many more cultural white elephant swaps are bound to come. And, thankfully, the greatest gift this season defies being defined by any single culture. In such a swap as this, it is one life for another. Yet, once again we come out having received the far better end, knowing that we gave nothing but rubbish in exchange for everything of value.