Police officers in Pardubice received a phone call from a local fast food on Thursday morning. Employees said they found a live carp in the toilet bowl.
The carp were brought to the restaurant by a 28-year-old customer. The man bought the animal for the traditional Christmas dinner, but for some reason decided to place the carp in the toilet while he was waiting for his breakfast.
“He probably didn’t come up with any better idea,” said police spokesman Jiří Sejkora.
Before the arrival of the police, two employees took out the carp, placed it in a bucket of clean water, and then returned it to the owner.
Carp and Christmas
Carp for Christmas is not as strange as it seems. In Christianity fish have religious symbolism. Christ fed 5,000 with two fish and five loaves. He called his disciples ‘fishers of men.’ Fish should be eaten on fasting days.
Christmas Eve is a fasting evening so carp is on the menu. One carp is enough for the whole family as there is sufficient meat between the bones to feed all.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, you’ll find massive tanks full of carp outside every single supermarket, ready to be bought. Traditionally, families buy their carp a week before Christmas and let it live in the bath (children even name them!).
The reason this tradition started centuries ago was not only to keep the fish fresh but to clean the carp and get rid of the slightly muddy taste it gets from the river/pond.
Just before the women start cooking, it’s the man of the house’s job to kill the carp and get rid of the scales.
