For nearly 50 years, Sokol Greater Cleveland’s Czech Holiday Fair has showcased the traditions and spirit of Christmas.
The fair features ethnic food, music and entertainment and offers gifts for sale made by Czech and Slovakian people in Eastern Europe. This year’s fair at is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Bohemian National Hall, 4939 Broadway Ave.
Mary Jo McCarthy, the current organizer of the Czech Holiday Fair, is a second-generation Czech-American. Her parents were involved in starting the fair in the 1970s.
“[My father] and my uncle were unbelievable wood craftsmen,” she said. They would make wooden toys to sell, you know, things like pull toys and just different wooden [gifts].”
How the fair has grown
The fair has grown over the years and now includes local vendors, bringing “new blood and new excitement” to the event, according to McCarthy. “You start seeing new faces, and everybody’s always amazed when they walk in that building because they’ve never been there before.”
McCarthy said she knows many customers because they keep coming back.
“It’s like a little mini-reunion every year when you see these people and you get to know them,” she said. “I have a guy that comes to my ornament table every year, and he usually comes towards the end. His name is Art, I don’t know what his last name is, but he always stops, and he always buys an ornament for each one of his nieces and nephews.”
“We get a lot of imported items from the Czech Republic,” said McCarthy, “garnets, ornaments, crystal, pottery, liquor, beer, but [a lot of] people come here for the food.”
Tom Kaschalk, an author and Cleveland history researcher, has done book signings at the Czech Holiday Fair and said it’s the first event that gets him in the mood for the holidays.
“Just walking through [Bohemian National Hall] is worth the trip,” he said. “A building tour and a stop in the museum take you right back to old Cleveland. The neighborhood [Slavic Village] around this hall is just as full of stories.”
“And of course, there’s the food and the beer!” he added.
Get to know Czech foods
The Czech Holiday Fair’s kitchen committee, a group of nearly 30 people, works nearly year-round baking and preparing foods for the fair. McCarthy said they range in age from early 30s to 98 years old.
The group makes dumplings, strudels and vanochy ahead of time and freeze them.
“They take two months off, maybe three, after the holiday fair, and then they start gearing up again,” McCarthy said.
Vanochy, pronounced “vah-NOTCH-kee,” is a braided sweet bread with candied fruits and raisins baked in. It is sometimes topped with slivered almonds.
Chlebichy, pronounced “kleh-BEETCH-kee,” are plain slices of bread with a potato salad spread on top to start. Chlebichy are then topped with other foods like rolled salami, pimentos, egg slices or small pickles.
“It wouldn’t be a celebration without chlebichy,” said McCarthy.
Kuba, pronounced “KOO-bah,” is a meatless casserole with barley, mushrooms, onions and marjoram – what McCarthy calls “Czech comfort food.” Kuba is traditionally served for a Christmas lunch or with dinner. McCarthy remembers it being served every Christmas Day at her aunt’s home.
The fair also has a more traditional dish called tripe soup. “Here’s where we get a little ugly,” McCarthy laughed. Tripe soup, or dršťková polévka, pronounced “DURSH-ko-vah POL-ev-kah,” is made from the edible muscular lining of the stomach chambers of farm animals, heavily spiced with paprika, onions and garlic. It is also known as pepper pot soup. The kitchen committee makes the soup and freezes it for sale in the deli at the fair.
“Some people swear by it,” she said. “I am not even sure I’ve ever tried it because of what it’s made out of.”
Throwing shoes, and a carp in the bathtub: Czech Christmas traditions
A Czech tradition is serving carp on Christmas Eve, McCarthy said.
“They would catch or buy the carp a couple days before Christmas, and they would keep it alive in the bathtub,” McCarthy said. “My grandfather did this one year, and it never really dawned on me, I just thought it was kind of cool having a fish in the bathtub, I was maybe three years old.”
“Mikuláš” is the Czech version of Saint Nicholas, who traditionally visits children on the evening of Dec. 5.
“How we had it explained to us was, Santa, or Mikuláš, would bring the stockings and fill them,” McCarthy said. “He would visit the children accompanied by an angel representing goodness and rewards like fruit and sweets, and a devil representing mischief and coal. My mother always put oranges and nuts in our stockings.”
Another Czech Christmas tradition is shoe throwing.
“Unmarried women throw a shoe over their shoulder towards the front door,” McCarthy explained. “If the toe points towards the door, it predicts marriage within the coming year.”
The Czech and Slovak people were united as one country, known as Czechoslovakia, from 1918 to 1992. Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, the nation split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
McCarthy’s father was one-quarter Slovak, and her mother was 100% Czech.
“It was always a standing joke that if something bad happened, ‘Oh, that’s the Slovak side,’” she laughed. “They would rib each other. [But] in the Cleveland area, there’s no separation or anything because we’re all so intertwined.”
The Czech Holiday Fair takes place this Saturday, Nov. 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Bohemian National Hall at 4939 Broadway Ave.
