Holidays and festivals

December 26th is called Boxing Day from the custom in earlier times of giving postmen, milkmen, dustmen and newspaper boys small sums of money, which they collected in their Christmas boxes. A pantomime is a traditional Christmas time entertainment but it is not a play without words. It is a theatre show based on a fairy tale or traditional story with music, dancing, acrobatics and clowning. Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Peter Pan are the most favourite fairy tales for dramatization.

Christmas is not a national holiday in the USA. Unlike Christmas in our country, Christmas in the USA is not a family holiday, families invite friends to join them at Christmas dinner and often give parties at Christmas time. On Boxing Day most shops are open although people have a day off. Besides the Christmas tree the Americans also decorate their houses with garlands and wreaths and electric coloured lights inside and outside the house or on the trees in their gardens.

Czech national holidays

New Year – 1st January

This festive day celebrates the start of the New Year. Some people still keep the tradition and prepare a big meal including pork for good luck and lentils for prosperity.

Easter

The date of celebration is different every year, as it falls on the first Sunday after the spring full moon – the first full moon after 21st March. The symbols of Easter are the same as symbols of spring: lambs and eggs, representing new life. There is a tradition of “whipping girls” in our country. Boys go around the village or town and they whip girls with young sprigs of a willow, which is supposed to bring the girls good health.

Labour Day – 1st May

This day commemorates the efforts of labour unions to improve working conditions for all people. On May 1, 1886, labour unions organized a strike in Chicago to protest against miserable working conditions. At that time most workers worked 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week. The strikers wanted to work eight hours a day. The police attacked the strikers for no reason killing two and wounding several others. This led to protests in many other places.

Liberation Day – 8th May

Liberation Day celebrates the end of World War II on 8th May, 1945. It is the time when we remember the people who fought and died for our freedom.

Cyril and Methodius Day – 5th July

St. Cyril and St. Methodius brought Christianity to the Slavic people of central Europe in 863. They also wrote down the standard Slavic language, which was the forerunner of the Czech, Slovak, Polish and Russian languages.

Jan Hus Day – 6th July

July 6 commemorates Jan Hus, a Catholic priest and the rector of Charles University. He was burned at the stake as a heretic because of his efforts to stop corruption in the Catholic Church.

St. Wenceslas Day – 28th September

This day is celebrated as Czech Statehood Day. Prince Wenceslas, who was murdered by his brother, is the patron saint of the Czech nation.

Czechoslovak Independence Day – 28th October