The Green Goblin Grinch has been upset about Christmas for fifty-three years. He lives in the bowels of the mountain high above the village of Kdovikov, whose inhabitants, on the other hand, experience the holidays in a constant Christmas rush. One day he disguises himself as Santa Claus and steals all the gifts from the merry people. Individuals who have Christmas stolen in its current form can also be found in the Czech Republic. They were embittered by the stress, the emptying of feast and trade.
The story of how the Grinch stole Christmas landed in the head of American writer Theodore S. Geisel in 1957. While brushing his teeth on the morning of December 26th, he discovered a grunt in the mirror. His face reflected the weariness of his wife’s constant illness along with the accumulated frustration of turning Christmas into a shopping spree. Today, the Grinch is a symbol of antipathy toward Christmas cheer, and in English the word is also used as a synonym for morouse and skunk.
Years ago, even an introvert in his twenties who wanted to have the name FIlip got wet on Christmas. He’s just preparing his family’s Christmas Eve dinner. “Christmas leaves me cold and I don’t feel any connection with the religious meaning of this holiday. At the same time, I am disgusted with how they look today. I don’t like the constantly attacking ads or how the whole event is rolled into one level of commerce, ”explains the young man.
The film adaptation of the Grinch story with Jim Carrey attributes the creature’s displeasure to a childhood trauma, which happened just on Christmas. But as a boy, Philip never suffered any scars on his soul, he was looking forward to gifts. “I was touched by the festive atmosphere when the family sat down at the Christmas table and then went to the tree. It was magical,” he recalls.
Magic disappeared at puberty. “This is where the conflict started to come in for me, I’m not actually a believer, but all of a sudden here is once a year we kind of play Jesus.” Philip respects whether believers commemorate the birth of Christ, but he doesn’t understand why atheists participate in the ritual. “I started to feel weird detaching myself from her.
Philip’s family members gradually understood the fact that he was unaware of the holiday from his sarcastic remarks. He still officially gives small gifts himself, but it annoys him even more so that, despite requests, relatives continue to give him gifts as well. “I can’t appreciate it and I can’t quite handle it,” he shrugs awkwardly.
Philip’s partner understands his situation, although she loves holidays. If they hadn’t gone to their parent’s carp and salad, they probably wouldn’t have bothered to cook. The young couple don’t ever plan to have children, but when they do, Santa won’t give them presents. “I think the solution is to say why don’t we celebrate it or why we do it differently, rather than adapt,” concludes Philip.
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Forty-something co-star Jarda Hainzel has been shunning mall hustle and bustle for the past 25 years. He remembers that a few years after being estranged from his parents, he was still celebrating Christmas with his partners at the time. “Even then, I was so tired of the shopping spree, I was desperately searching for and finding gift ideas to thank myself for one thing or the other,” he explains. He too came to the opinion that Christmas in the Czech Republic is a celebration of extravagance.
“Every year, my friends and I brag about who actually saw the first Christmas commercial, the iconic place with the wild boar, or where the Christmas section in the supermarket actually is. When you realize someone comes in from vacation at the end of summer and jumps right into the pre-Christmas commercial massage, It’s crazy!”
When the Christmas dinner was over, he felt relieved. “The liberty that bordered on revolution in the sense of ‘against all,’ when I got comfortable in everyday life, while others went crazy, shopped, cooked, fried, and tried to perfect the Christmas atmosphere…” Even his accomplices did not disagree with his decision .
“I might also highlight the point of view we moved from at the time, which is: Why give yourself gifts compulsively, unintentionally, and only on the 12/24, when you can give someone a gift whenever you feel like it,” Hainzel explains. Like Philip, he has trouble accepting gifts. “I have instructed the family that I do not want gifts, and if I am going to spend Christmas time with them, let’s enjoy the atmosphere, rather than look for them. I only give gifts to the children in the family,” he sums up.
Enjoy it without the phones ringing
However, he is not completely immune from the festive mood. He loves to go to the Christmas fair with his friends, and at home he loves to eat sweets while listening to well-known fairy tales. But he “borrows” sweets from his friends, does not decorate the tree and does not look at the carp. “Christmas Eve cuisine is mostly inspired by Christmas, however, that’s not the norm. So it’s not that we serve goulash, but because my partner is a foreigner, the table is always more varied than the Czech one.”
Clarify priorities, including the “what” and “who” that is worth the effort at the end of the year, recommend to others. “Practically, practically, it’s the annual shutdown of all businesses. Meanwhile, it’s a purely selfish moment of well-deserved vacation, without the phones ringing and the constant stream of email. A moment to yourself…”
Stalin is coming, we have luxury!
Grinch movie connoisseurs didn’t miss the passage in which the green hated stockings come to life after removing them from his stinky feet and sneaking into a dark corner of a goblin’s lair. Although Klaudie is a well-groomed woman in her thirties, due to stress associated with excessive cleaning, she has been visiting relatives more than two days before Christmas Eve. “Everything has to be cleaned up, vacuumed even under the bed, the windows washed, the fridge packed. Meanwhile, we celebrate Christmas with my brother, my parents and my grandmother. It’s not like Stalin or the McCallisters have to come visit us,” he says of the mood. at home.
She doesn’t mind Christmas as such, but she does have a problem with the Czech concept of the holiday. “I don’t like sitting at home reading fairy tales, always eating and reading. In order to put up with this all day on family visits and not disturb others, I have to go out by myself for at least an hour every day or swim or take a cold shower. It wakes me up and calms me down at the same time.” the time “.
However, for Klaudia, vacation has always been important as a time when the family should be together no matter what. That stopped three years ago. Then she accidentally gets stuck in Ukraine and decides to celebrate the holidays in a village in the Carpathian Mountains. However, as she went there alone, grief came upon her. “On Christmas Eve, I was sitting alone in a local tavern in the Carpathians, crying over fried cheese — that was Christmas Eve dinner — and I was sad. I didn’t feel the Christmas atmosphere there, because Ukrainians don’t celebrate Christmas until January 6, I spent the evening with my parents, called them on Skype, ”she recalls moments of loneliness.
But in the end she found a balance. She realized that she could spend such a day with her family at any time of the year and without undue stress. “Later, I got to know the locals at the pub and have the best Christmas time. I finally had the space for that kind of real winter getaway I had always dreamed of. Instead of spending time cleaning and sitting in front of the TV, I wandered into the countryside, meeting new people and really understanding what sleep is all about.” And what I feel. Since then, I regularly go into the woods for a few days around Christmas, and no longer see the holiday as just “holy, perfect time with my family.”
Even the fairy-tale Grinch finally comes to the realization that Christmas is not what he thought it was. Although he stole gifts from the residents under the mountain, Dor Kdovik couldn’t take away from the citizens the Christmas atmosphere of togetherness.
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