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Czech TV will broadcast the Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve live from the Cathedral of the Divine Saviour in Ostrava, a spokeswoman for the public broadcaster’s Ostrava department said on Saturday. The mass will be celebrated by the bishop of the Ostrava-Opava diocese, František Václav Lobkwicz. The cathedral, built in the late 19th century, seats 4,000 people, and is one of the biggest churches in the country.

In Magazine: why fining your superior may not be such a good idea; a baby palm cockatoo captures Czechs’ hearts, a Czech police officer makes international headlines by taking a musical break from his beat in the centre of Prague and a nativity scene in heaven and hell.

The light of Bethlehem arrived in Prague on Friday. Traditionally it was borne by a group of girl and boy scouts who travel for the light of Bethlehem to Vienna from where it is taken to Brno and then Prague. In the Czech capital it was first taken to St. Vitus Cathedral where it was received by Cardinal Dominik Duka and from there to a number of spiritual sites and institutions including Czech Radio. People will be able to come to the radio building at Vinohradska to light candles from the flame after 5.30 pm up until Christmas Eve. The tradition of bringing the light of Bethlehem to the Czech Republic started in 1990 a year after the fall of communism.

Hello and welcome to SoundCzech, Radio Prague’s Czech language course in which you can learn new phrases with the help of song lyrics. Today we are playing a Christmas carol called Veselé Vánoce – or Merry Christmas.

A battle over opening hours at Czech stores during the holidays has continued for several years and once again the question of whether stores should close or remain open at Yuletide is being hotly debated. Some Czech union representatives want to see hours curbed so that cashiers or shop assistants can spend more time with their loved ones; critics say the matter should be left up to employers.

One thing I’ll give the Czechs: they do Christmas really well, adhering to their rich traditions in a way that does much to nullify the creeping commercialisation of recent decades.

A Christmas tree erected on Thursday in Vatican Square in Rome as a gift from Bavaria was felled in the Czech Republic, the mayor of a Bavarian community told Radio Vaticana. The tree was a gift from the Bavarian town of Waldmünchen, located close to the German-Czech border; when searching for a suitable tree, the Czech town of Domažlice offered a giant spruce growing on the Czech side of the border. The Bavarian mayor said the tree came from the hearth of Europe; the Czech town’s mayor suggested it was a symbol of Czech-German friendship.

Christmas markets officially opened and Christmas trees were lit in many areas, namely public squares, on Sunday, the first day of Advent, the season marked by Christians preparing for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The weekend saw a marked interest by both locals and tourists, for example, at Prague's Old Town Square, a traditional site for Christmas markets, where mulled wine and roasted chestnuts are sold as well as other food and drink and where various attractions can be viewed.

An enormous Christmas tree that will adorn Prague’s Old Town Square over the holiday season was cut down by the village of Rataje nad Sázavou in central Bohemia on Sunday. The 24-metre pine, believed to be about 80 years old, was felled by two-time Czech chainsaw champion Jiří Vorlíček, a native of Rataje nad Sázavou, in front of a crowd of around 200 people. After a complicated journey to the capital, the tree will be erected on Tuesday and ceremonially unveiled on Saturday.

Christmas is the season to be merry, and in many cultures it is also a season of giving. In the Czech Republic this is only a growing trend, and given the uncertain economic climate, charity is not necessary the first thing on people’s minds. Radio Prague spoke to Michael Stannett, the head of the Czech branch of the Salvation Army, or Armada Spasy, in Czech, and asked him if the current economic downturn has had a negative effect on how much people were willing to open their pocketbooks this Christmas season.