SPRING FESTIVILITIES
Flamboyant spring with its creamy perfume of snowdrops, golden tones of sweet
honey and the crisp colours of the first flowers. Blue-and-white printing, glassmaking,
wood carving, bone lace and painted Easter eggs are all representatives of crafts
our ancestors were renowned for and which show just how long the artisan tradition
has been maintained in our country. The spring and Easter fairs are a unique
chance to offer some unexpected magic, the feeling of a place where time has
paused on its headlong flight. After the long winter, the sunny days seem to
be composed of irresistible flavours and smells. You can also take advantage
of the first folklore celebrations, castle concerts and festivals, but also
trips on bicycles and horses and fabulous idling under the sunshades of cafes.
It is Easter time, a time of new smells, fresh green grass and fragile flowers.
It is time to go outside…
Easter and Spring in Prague
Prague is the most important city in the Czech Republic, the state’s political,
economic and cultural centre with an exceptionally well-preserved historical
centre. The city is proud of its status as one of the most beautiful and important
cities in Central Europe. In its old narrow streets, visitors soak up its historical
atmosphere and are dazzled by its mixture of architectural styles.
Before Easter begins…
Shrovetide (Masopust) is the traditional joyful folk festival: Masopust starts
with the Three Kings on 6 January and ends on Ash Wednesday, forty days before
Easter. Formerly a time of winter rest, pleasure, merrymaking, abundance and
well-being, the Masopust tradition has arrived in Prague too in recent years.
The Masopust in Prague 6 is only a year younger, but the Karlín version
is only one-year old. The main programmes for the public are the Masopust processions
with masks, carriages, jugglers and drummers, and to help people keep with the
spirit of the locals saying that on Good Friday you should eat and drink as
much as possible (so that people are full of strength for the whole year), there
is also a pigslaughtering. You can also see a representation of an old Czech
marriage.
Over several years the celebrations around the arrival of spring and Easter
have become an essential part of the local colour of the Old Town Square. The
combination of the markets and the children’s celebrations of the main
festivals of the year are original. Easter eggs, brightly-coloured streamers,
the traditional playful thrashing of girls, sprightly folk music, and children’s
Easter singing and dancing bring the joyful atmosphere of the approaching spring
festivals to the Old Town Square. Stalls displaying various techniques of Easter
egg painting, artistic metalworking, engraving, painting and other clever crafts
have become part of the Easter markets.
Traditional Spring in the Pribram
Area
The Pribram mining museum dates back to 1886. Its physical size and number of
exhibits make it the largest mining museum in the Czech Republic. The individual
expositions in Pribram – Brezove Hory
present the public with the history of mining and metallurgy in the area from
prehistoric times (the time of the Celts) up to the present, acquaints visitors
with mining ethnography and also offers a display of unique mineralogical/geologic
samples from the Brezove Hory silver ore field, the Pribram
uranium deposits and the Podbrdy iron-ore fields. Some of the most important
exhibits are the protected technical monuments – the steam haulage engine
from the Vojtech pit from 1889, the steam haulage engine from the Anna Mine
from 1914, the mine compressor from the General Stefanik Mine from 1928 and
the water wheel from the Drkolnov Mine from the 19th century, a mining monument
of international importance. Among the most popular attractions is the chance
go underground and take a mine train 260 m through the Prokop tunnel to the
mouth of the deepest excavation in the Brezove Hory ore deposits – the
Prokop pit dating from 1832 at 1 600 m deep is also one of the deepest in Central
Europe. The Prokop mining society is making great efforts to renew the mining
and historical traditions in Pøíbram. Since 1990, the famous Prokop
Fair (Prokopska pout) has been held in the same spirit as in earlier times,
when miners took part in the procession in special uniforms and set out to the
pit area where a field mass took place. The mining museum also offers tourists
a rich programme at other times, namely through their traditional Masopust and
Christmas programmes.
In the Vysoky Chlumec Open-air Folk Construction Museum, we find residential,
farming and technical structures dating from the 18th to 20th centuries from
the Central Bohemian Pahorkatina area, the Berounka River basin and the northern
part of South Bohemia. The first accessible building in Vysoky Chlumec was house
no.4, brought here from the Obdìnice u Petrovic municipality. In this
traditional three-part, cellular-type house, visitors can see the black kitchen
with exhibits of the tools and utensils used for preparing meals on an open
fire.
Tradition in Zubrince
The youngest open-air museum in Bohemia is found in Zubrnice. It is based around
a historical village in the lap of the Ceske Stredohori hills. The public have
access to a complex of timbered farmsteads with interior and exterior exhibits
including a unique hot-air fruit drier. The site also contains an exhibit of
a village school, an old shop and a church with regular exhibitions. In the
centre of the village green, a Baroque well has been brought in and a little
way from the village, there is a small station that contains a transportation
exposition. Renewed traditions The Zubrnice Masopusts and Easter are renewed
traditions. The first renewed Masopust took place in 1998 in cooperation with
the Dykyta folk ensemble and local inhabitants. The aim of the event was to
show how village Masopusts looked and reforge links to interrupted traditions,
including displays of historical masks, nursery rhymes and songs, displays of
old folk Easter customs and methods of making Easter eggs and whips.
