This period of the year is rich in East-West cultural differences as well as similarities. There are jokes going round suggesting that "Christmas" has been outlawed in the United States, because some busybodies fear that people of other religions will feel excluded. They are surely not living in the normal world where "Christmas" has less to do with "Kristova omša" and more with commercial sales records.

Anyway, some people in this part of the world have to wait two weeks for their Christmas, which is coming up this Friday, because they follow a different calendar compared with the majority. American and British people are not familiar with name-day celebrations, because the Protestant majority who control calendar production in the West leave out the names, because they do not recognize the saints' days. So there's no Silvester ("lesný muž"??) on December 31st, only New Year's Eve ("predvečer", remember!) - and now some other busybodies want to outlaw fireworks, because some people get burned and some dogs wet themselves in fear... We at OVI wish our readers All the Best throughout this new year 2006.