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What appears to be gross bureaucratic incompetence may cost the Czech Republic billions of crowns. The country’s belated bid to become a party in the ongoing criminal case against the former managers of the Czech mining firm Mostecká uhelná, involving billions of crowns now frozen in Swiss bank accounts - has been thrown out by a Swiss court, leaving the Czechs out in the cold.

It is a well-known fact that the traditional Czech heavy Christmas menu is a burden on the digestive system. Fewer people know, though, that fat is not only bad for the gall-bladder and arteries but can also cause problems to the sewage system. Especially in densely populated areas the sewer pipes and sewage treatment plants experience something of a fat overdose at Christmas time. The problem is faced by all cities and some have already taken measures against it.

One of the many Christmas masses celebrated over the past weekend was a mass for the Vietnamese community celebrated by Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka in Prague’s Žižkov district. It was dedicated to the Feast of the Holy Family and attended by over a thousand Vietnamese who have embraced the Christian faith.

Church bells tolled across the Czech Republic at noon and the nation held a minute of silence in memory of the hero of the Velvet Revolution and the country’s first post-communist president Václav Havel. All eyes were on Prague’s St. Vitus’ Cathedral where a funeral mass for the late president attracted hundreds of mourners from at home and abroad.

The late president Václav Havel was honoured by Prague’s Jewish community on Wednesday during a Chanukah lighting ceremony in Jan Palach square in the centre of the capital. Jewish leaders, along with diplomats and the mayor of Prague, said the festival celebrates the same values Václav Havel always stood up for.

The atmosphere in the Czech capital was somber on Wednesday as thousands of mourners followed ex-president Václav Havel’s casket on his final journey through Prague. Along the entire route from Prague Crossroads in the Old Town over Charles Bridge and up to Prague Castle people lined the streets, some holding candles, others photographs of the late ex-president, paying their last respects to the man who more than twenty years ago led his country to freedom and democracy.

As thousands of Czechs line up to pay their last respects to Václav Havel, bowing to his casket at the Prague Crossroads spiritual centre where he is lying in repose, preparations are underway for Wednesday’s funeral procession to Prague Castle, Friday’s celebratory mass at St. Vitus’ Cathedral and other commemorative events.

It has taken more than 200 years for Jakub Jan Ryba’s Czech Christmas Mass to come to Chicago, but it seems that good things come to those who wait. The Ryba Mass was premiered in the Windy City on Saturday and Rosie Johnston was there.

The death of Vaclav Havel stopped Czechs in their tracks on Sunday. A hush fell over the country as thousands of people gathered to light candles and pay a silent tribute to the hero of the Velvet Revolution. At 6 pm bells around the Czech Republic tolled in memory of the man who showed endless courage in the face of oppression and who led his nation on the road to freedom and democracy.

The Guardian in the UK looks at President Havel in the European context. Their editorial describes the president as “a politician whose vision and wit embraced not just the art of the possible but of the impossible too”. All the states of Europe, the paper writes “have to be open to the new, the brave and the difficult without abandoning the moral, the wise and the treasured.