Christmas and Winter

Winter in Petajavesi and Greenhill


Míša Mužátková

The Mass at the Church of St. John Nepomuk on the Green Hill on 31 st December 2011

The festive ceremony was unforgettable for its fabulous atmosphere. The church was full of people from Žďár nad Sázavou, Nové Město na Moravě and also from villages nearby.

After the mass the Czech national anthem, the European Union anthem and the carol ´Christ the Saviour was born´ were played. At midnight all people gathered in front of the Church to welcome the New Year.

                                                 Vladimír Vojtěch Záleský and  Jitka Stráská

Candle church

Candle Church has been celebrated in Petäjävesi Old Church on Boxing Days since 1998. Before the year 1998 they spent candle church in Petäjävesi New Church but only about twenty attended people, a lot less than now. To Petäjävesi Old Church comes lots of more people, even from neighbouring communes or even longer distances. But now I'm going to tell about the last Candle Church:

Programme included:
Bible reading, some prayers and a little sermon
Christmas carols
Outside was a camp fire for sausages and in some years there has been a posibility for children to ride a horse.

There were about 250 people in the church last time. It has been almost full every year. About a half of people were families, third of the people attending being children. And of course there were also older people.

The church lasted about for half-an-hour. In the church there's as cold as outside. It was windy outside during the service but it wasn't cold because the temperature wasn't below zero. Fire fighters and a sacristan needed to do a lot of work to keep candles on. The people had flashlights and seat pads with them and they got to keep their hats on the head.

Over all the Candle church is very popular and a nice event.


                                                                     Veera