PRAGUE – The coronavirus pandemic has made life difficult for a lot of people in the Czech Republic, and that includes Saint Nicholas.
Every year on Dec. 5, Nicholas appears in costume on streets across the European country, joined by a winged angel and a masked devil rattling a metal chain.The trio goes door-to-door visiting children and giving them candy and small gifts, if they have been well-behaved.
If not, the devil threatens to put the girls and boys in his sack and take them directly to hell - unless the angel intervenes.
The Czech health minister insisted the traditional trio needed to follow the government’s infection-control measures just like everyone else, which meant wearing masks and practicing social distancing.