The Slovak community of the Headquarters Multinational Corps Northeast organised a special Pre-Christmas event on December 9th, 2008, the idea of which was to promote typically Slovak Christmas traditions.
All Headquarters’ personnel were given a unique chance to spend a winter afternoon together, learning about Slovakia and its Christmas customs in particular. “As we are the fourth strongest nation in the Corps, we have decided that it would be good to organise such an event with special Slovak food, drinks and music”, said Lieutenant Colonel Miroslav Sefranik, the Slovak Senior National Representative. The event specially was unique since all food and drinks were either brought from Slovakia or at least prepared from original ingredients bought there.
The guests in crowds gathered at the Allied Officers’ Club. They were warmly welcomed by Lieutenant Colonel Sefranik, who presented all specialties prepared for the event. It turned out that even special small gifts with emblems of Slovakia or the Slovak Armed Forces were waiting for each participant. Nevertheless, everybody was waiting to try Slovak traditional dishes, like cabbage soup, sausages, pancakes with a sweet flavour or with liver sauce, various kinds of cold meat and cheese or even desserts. When the initial curiosity was satisfied, the people got involved in small talks, interrupted from time to time by raptures over, for example, Slovak cheese.
The participation in national events is undoubtedly a treasury of information about various customs or cuisine preferences of different nations. It does not only enrich people’s cultural awareness but it also makes it easier to work on day-to-day business together knowing who we are and what we are like.
