St. Nick's in Mikuláš

For those who are not familiar with the holiday of St. Nick's Day, it is a celebration that takes place on December 6. The night of December 5 children put out shoes or socks and hope that St. Nick comes and leaves them goodies. Usually the goodies are candy or other types of presents. In my family we would always leave wooden shoes by the front door. When I went to college my St. Nick goodies came in the mail instead. Well, Slovakia also celebrates St. Nick's Day, but instead of Nick (Nikolaus) they use the name Mikuláš because that is the Slovak form of the name. Does that name sound familiar? If you answered yes then you are right! The town I live in is named for St. Mikuláš, so they have a celebration each year at this time. The whole country actually celebrates the day, but not everywhere has this particular celebration. Some Slovak families use St. Nick's as a day to gather and open their presents. One of my friends who is Slovak, I met him when I lived in Germany, called on his way to his parents. He showed some real dedication because he had just gotten off work and was going from Bratislava to his parents (I think it is about an hour away), opening presents, going back to Bratislava that night, sleeping a little and going to work again. I am not sure if it is as big a tradition in every one's family, but it is in his.

OK, so you might be wondering what Liptovský Mikuláš does for its celebration. The name of the celebration is Mikulášsky Jarmok. It went from December 4-December 6. There were carnival rides set up in one square in town and there were booths set up throughout the entire downtown area of Mikuláš. The people at the booths were selling crafts and some sold food and drinks, Medovina or Punč. The market and carnival opened Thursday and Friday there were different performances happening on stage in one of the squares. Since Saturday was the last night and the actual day of St. Nick there were big closing performances. The first performance at 7pm was a fire show. There were a number of performers who did routines with sticks on fire. After they were finished there was a concert of the band Desmod. They are a Slovak group that does hard-rock, soft-rock and I was told punk too. I went to both of these and it was a lot of fun. I could not really understand the songs since they were in Slovak, but I recognized a couple from the radio. It was a lot of fun to be around for something that is special like this.

For pictures from Mikulášsky Jarmok visit the following site: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187008&l=ade98&id=682430592

Video of the Fire Show and Desmod.