A viral post on X recently showed a fish swimming in a bathtub with the caption: “rare childhood christmas memory: not being able to take a bath because theres a carp in the bathtub.”

rare childhood christmas memory: not being able to take a bath because theres a carp in the bathtub pic.twitter.com/Q8b20o4saZ

— robiš (@joeltistic) November 1, 2025

Immediately, commenters began to show concern. Was this person’s parent an eccentric? Someone who demanded fresh fish by any means necessary? Both?

Nope. It turns out, they were just from Central Europe, where this practice is surprisingly common.

According to various sources around the internet, this is what’s called a “Christmas Carp.” It’s a fresh carp that is kept in a bathtub to “remove muddy flavors” until it comes time to remove the thing from your bathroom and fry it.

Why the tub? Well, back when carp were caught in muddy ponds, letting them swim in clean water helped remove the earthy flavor. As most homes have a tub, it became tradition to just sacrifice your bathroom to the carp for a week so you can have a nice Christmas meal.

When my polish friend told me about this I thought she was joking but then she showed me this picture and I actually lost my mind https://t.co/52CEERDgDrpic.twitter.com/W9adRzTpax

— ripni ♡ リプニ (@ripnicolle) November 3, 2025

When an image of this practice was shared on X — and thus, exposed to us freedom-loving Americans —- the response was one of shock. “i thought this was some non-sequitur, dadaist bit, but no, millions of people in mitteleuropa do this every year,” wrote a user. “Best part of the internet is stuff like this. I’d never have known or guessed Slavs have this tradition of keeping a large carp in the bathtub for their family Christmas dinner. Incredible,” declared another.

So, your European coworker may seem all refined and educated, but, unlike him, you can actually take a shower on Christmas Eve. That’s gotta count for something!