Croatia+-+Columna+Language+School

Hi all,

we live in Croatia. It is a small country in the east of Europe. Our town is called Vinkovci. It was known as Cibalae during the Roman times, and even two Roman emperors were born here. We speak Croatian, but we also study other languages. We mostly study English and German, but also Italian, French, and Russian. We are aged between 10-13.

We are looking forward to celebrating Christmas, which we call Bozic. This is why we greet each other with Sretan Bozic, which of course means Merry Christmas. It is usually cold outside for Christmas, and we love it when there is a lot of snow around.



For Christmas we eat different kinds of food. For Christmas Eve we usually roast sausages, which are eaten after the traditional Christmas Mass, which takes place at midnight. When we get back home we eat roasted sausages. For Christmas we bake cookies, which usually contain different kinds of nuts - walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds.

**Christmas biscuits**

People traditionally decorate the Christmas tree, and exchange gifts. There is another holiday we love and which precedes Christmas. It is St Nicholas which we celebrate on 6 December. He brings presents to children and puts them into the shoes that children leave overnight in front of doors. He is accompanied by Krampus, who brings bad children a rod.

**Saint Nicholas and Krampus**