this is from Old Town square in Prague

you can dream that one day you’ll be able to paint eggs like that – it takes some mad skills and patience

Czech Easter: How to make Easter eggs

The egg (Czech: vajíčko or vejce) is an essential part of Easter and a symbol of new life. Painting eggs is a folk tradition and there are many ways how to do it. 

Step one: blow out the egg or as we say “vyfouknout”

The best would be if you just watched this video. 

Holes are on both sides.

But you don’t have to do this for all eggs. Some techniques are perfectly fine with regular boiled eggs. For example:

OVO

You simply buy some OVO motives at the mall and follow this picture (water has to be hot!). Easy and fast – good for kids because they can make it by themselves. 

This is starting to look like some commercial for OVO but they make another set like this one. Again, pretty easy to apply.

But for this you’ll need to paint the eggs first. You can buy the colours at the drug store or make them at home (red from wine, pink from beet…)

Put the eggs into a pot with water and the paint and boil them for some time (ie. time that is written on the rear of the package). Again, very easy. 

…or you can use oil paints

Scraped eggs are done by scrapping. Surprisingly. This method takes a lot of time and the best instrument for that is a cutter. But you can use just as well any kind of knife, small scissors or nail file. Only the results might be a little different…

My favourite way of painting eggs is using onion peels. Wrap them tightly in nylons (or bandages), together with various types of grass or any type of nice plant you come by.

 

Now, when all your eggs look like they are going to rob the bank, put them into the pot with onion peels (use a lot of them, eggs will have darker colour) and boil them for some time. 

Wax painting – another method thanks to which are made some wonderful egg designs. You need to warm up the wax and then with sharpened wooden skewer (or previously mentioned tools) you carefully paint ornaments on the egg.

The results are in many cases pretty amazing but sadly my eggs never looked like that.

There are of course many more ways how to decorate eggs but I included only those that are by my opinion the most common (and those I myself know how to do). 

But the human imagination has no limits, so here you have a few more examples

This method is called “drátování” (wiring).

Veselé Velikonoce! 

judases with sugar

mazanec

judases = jidáše

mazanec (well, this one looks more like pletenec) with raisins

sugared mazanec with almonds

beránek

beránci with coating

just removed from the mold

this one reminds me of my dog…

Czech cuisine: Easter dishes 

more info on image’s captions

Jidáše (judases) are made from sourdough bread sweetened with honey. Rolled out strands are reminders of Judas’s betrayal and his subsequent death on the rope. Nowadays they are pretty rare and it’s not easy to find them in bakeries. 

Mazanec is a popular Easter cake from sweet sourdough with added raisins or almonds. It is one of the oldest Czech ceremonial pastries and families traditionally brought it on Saturday to the church to let it be consecrated. Some people even make mazanec for Christmas (or more precisely its variant called vánočka).

Beránek (lamb) is a kind of sweet baked food in the shape of lying lamb. In the sweet dough we can find raisins or pieces of jelly. In some cases the lamb is poured over with chocolate or any other sweet coating. People in the Czech lands used to eat real lamb during Easter (because in the Bible is roasted lamb listed as a ceremonial meal before deparature of the Jews from Egypt), but sheep breeding decreased over years around here so lamb baked from dough became tasty substitute for this custom.

Czech fairy tales: How Pat and Mat celebrated Easter

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

kraslice = painted eggs

Czech Easter = Velikonoce

The Days Before Easter Sunday

Children finish school on Ugly Wednesday (Škaredá středa), which is a good idea because they need to spend some serious time on making Easter what it should be. In the evening of Green Thursday (Zelený čtvrtek), every boy in the village equips himself with a wooden rattle (řehtačka), which is specially made for the purpose, the boys form a group and walk through the village, rattling their rattles vigorously, so the noise can be heard from afar. The meaning of the rattling is to chase away Judas.

Easter is rather enjoyable holiday for children. 

The same procedure repeats on Good Friday (Velký pátek) and one more time on White Saturday (Bílá sobota) when the boys don’t only walk through the village but stop at every house in the morning and rattle until they’re given money, which they then split between themselves. However, this custom is not as popular as it used to be in past and practised only in some villages.

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday (Neděle velikonoční) is a day of preparations for Easter Monday. Girls paint, color and decorate eggs if they haven’t done so already, and boys prepare their pomlázkas!

Children in kindergarten learning how to paint eggs.

Easter Monday

Easter Monday (Pondělí velikonoční) is a day off, the day of the pomlázka.

The origin of the pomlázka tradition (pomlázka meaning both the whip and the tradition itself) dates back to pagan times. Its original purpose and symbolic meaning is to chase away illness and bad spirits and to bring health and youth for the rest of the year. Boys would whip girls lightly on the legs and possibly douse them with water, which had a similar symbolic meaning. An Easter carol, usually asking for an egg or two, would be recited by the boy while whipping. The girl would then reward the boy with a painted egg or candy and tie a ribbon around his pomlázka. As the boys progressed through the village, their bags filled up with eggs and their pomlázkas were adorned with more and more colorful ribbons.

traditional pomlázka

…how it looks in most cases

This tradition is still largely upheld, especially in villages and small towns, although it may have lost its symbolism and romance and is now performed mainly for fun. Some boys and men seem to have forgotten that the whipping is supposed to be only symbolic and girls don’t always like that. The reward has also changed – money and shots of plum brandy (slivovice) are often given instead (to adults) of or in addition to painted eggs and candy. So by early afternoon, groups of happy men can be seen staggering along the roads…

There is also custom called “oblévačka” when men pour water on women. In the Czech Republic its mostly practised in Eastern Moravia although you can sometimes find it in other regions, for example there is even reversed version of this custom when women pour water on men. 

In past we used to have “Revengeful Tuesday” when the roles get switched completely. This custom is still held in some places but otherwise it’s widely unknown. A pity – it looks fun.

All that aside, Easter remains one of the most joyful holidays on the Czech calendar.

Happy Easter! – Veselé Velikonoce!

Girls carrying traditional Easter dishes – mazanec and beránek. The weather is sadly very accurate for Velikonoce this year…(2013)

Opening scene – Closely Watched Trains (English subtitles)

The drama-comedy film is based on a story by Bohumil Hrabal.  It is a coming-of-age story about a boy working at a train station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II. In 1968 the film won the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 40th Academy Awards in 1968.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Čapek didn’t like using typewriter during writing, because he liked to write slower to sort out his thoughts

robot from the play R.U.R,

probably my most favorite Czech writer

Čapek and Masaryk had a very good relationship

brothers Karel and Josef Čapkové

PhDr. Karel  Čapek (January 9, 1890,Malé Svatoňovice – 25 December 1938, Prague) was a Czech writer, intellectual, journalist, playwright, translator and photographer.

His literary work began before the First World War, together with his brother Josef, who was primarily a painter. A great influence on his work had his philosophical and aesthetic education, especially expressionism and pragmatism. Čapek was also greatly influenced by the scientific revolution and in many parts of his work he expressed concern that one day technique gains power over man.

A typical characteristic of his work is the use of large vocabulary and unusual words. Čapek could make use of the Czech language and its peculiarities very well.

Biography

After graduation, he worked briefly as a tutor in a noble family, but soon he switched to journalism. Čaper worked as an editor for several magazines: Nárdoní listy, Nebojsa and Lidové noviny. He left Lidové noviny in 1921 as  protest against the exclusion of his brother from the editors and against the political (anti-Masaryk) direction of the sheet. After he was director and dramaturge in Vinohrady Theatre. In the years 1925-1933 he was the first chairman of the Czech PEN club. In 1935 he married his long-time girlfriend and actress Olga Scheinpflugová.

The Munich Agreement and the following surrender of Czechoslovakia meant for Karel Čapek collapse of his current world and personal tragedy.

“It seems to me that I have nothing to do here, I would be a ridiculous figure, my world died, because I believed in some sort of commitment, in so-called honour of the contract and things like that…”

After recovery from the initial shock, he tried to justify the government and the president’s actions. According to Čapek, there was no other acceptable solution. 

He tried to stop activities dividing the nation. After the abdication of President Beneš, he was the only visible symbol of the First Republic  and often played the role of “scapegoat”. He received numerous insulting letters and anonymous phone calls. Čapek responded to the attack on his person in the newspapers and kept trying to explain his activities. The last three years of his life he spent in the Stará Huť in Dobříš. He died of a pulmonary edema, a few months before Gestapo could arrest him. He was buried at the Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague. 

An individualistic approach is applied in his works, which results in recognition of strong individuals and accepting an unique truth (but only the truth from the perspective of the individual). Čapek was also very much influenced by the First World War and later the upcoming World War II.

 Interesting facts:

• Čapek was extremely good amateur photographer (photos in famous novel for children Dášenka or portraits of famous personalities).
• The authorship of the word “robot”, which was thanks to the theatre play RUR spread throughout the world, is actually ascribed to his brother Josef, who advised him to use that world. Karel Čapek originally thought about the word “laboř”. The word robot is of Slavic origin, formed from the verb robotovat (to work).
• He was nominated seven times for the Nobel Prize in Literature

His work is very broad, and so for practical reasons, we divide it into two parts:

• the part dealing with the inner life of man as an individual and through which Čapek attempts to explore the possibilities and limits of human knowledge, the multiplicity of views of reality, dealing with Noetics 
• utopian part – utopian novels and dramas in which Čapek criticizes social problems throughout modern society, there is often expressed fear of abuse of technology against humans and in some parts is also apparent fear from the emerging fascism. For these works were both Čapek brothers often regarded as a precursors of sci-fi literature.
  

His journalism is very interesting. Journalism gave him a variety of creative ideas and influenced the internal organization of his literary works, its language, style, but also the look and shape. It must be said that his work was greatly influenced the traditional and newly developed journalism departments.

His work in print is associated primarily with Lidové newspapers (“Lidové noviny”). Čapek wrote a large number of columns, where he commented on the current problems.

Due to his friendship with T. G, Masaryk, whom he greatly respected, Čapek wrote very pro-masaryk and became something like an official journalist of the Castle.

Czech harlem shake by ViralBrothers

Better without commentary.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Quick history: The crisis of First Republic

Picture of abandoned factory. Even though the crisis came a little later, the consequences for Czechoslovakia, focusing mainly on light industry, were no less harsh. 

The economic crisis 

I think there is no need to describe the story of Wall Street Crash in 1929. The crisis seriously affected Czechoslovakia – a  30% decrease in production, 1.3 million unemployed, declining exports, financial crisis, a decline in wages and devaluation of the crown.

The deepest crisis came in 1933.In neighbouring Germany came to power Adolf Hitler and Germany was quickly transformed into a totalitarian state. Czechoslovakia became the sole island of democracy in Central Europe, surrounded by states with fascist tendencies (including Poland and Hungary).

Politics

 

First picture: German SdP propaganda poster. Second picture: Andrej Hlinka, leading figure of Slovak autonomist movement and opposition political party HSĽS.

The crisis had huge political consequences. The influence of Communists (Gottwald, Zápotocký) and Nationalists grew (mainly among Slovaks and Germans, who were living in the border area).  Andrej Hlinka spoke about the autonomy of Slovakia, there was the Sudeten-German front (from 1935 SdP) headed by Konrad Henlein and financially supported from Germany, and the Czech fascists.

In 1935 agreements were signed on mutual assistance between Czechoslovakia and France and between Czechoslovakia and the USSR (which was bound to come to aid if France took an action).

Masaryk and Beneš.

President Masaryk abdicated and died year later. In his place came  Edvard Beneš. After taking the president office Beneš built strong border fortifications. 
Not later than in 1937 were most of German relations with Czechoslovakia restricted. Germany then began the disruption of the country from within through Henlein’s SDP. Beneš took many steps to limit the influence of Henlein’s party and soonGermany responded:

“…if Czechoslovakia will continue in the repression of the Germans and in their Bolshevik policy – then Germany will find a means to force Czechoslovakia to do it.”
J. Goebbels

In March 1938 there was Anschluss of Austria. After this it was considerably more difficult for Czechoslovakia to defend its borders.

Meanwhile Germany came up with plan Fall Grün – the enforced annexation of Czechoslovakia. Although it was a secret plan, Czech politicians had no illusions – Hitler many times publicly announced that he wanted to destroy Czechoslovakia.

April 1938 – SdPannounces Carslban program (Czech: karlovarský program) – Germans demanded full equality with the Czechs, the autonomy of the borderland and the freedom to proclaim fascist ideology. 

When the Czech government proposed concessions, Czech Germans rejected them. It’s no wonder, since they had direct orders from Hitler to not agree with the Czechoslovak government. Hitler was trying to aggravate the border disputes to point out the unwillingness of the Czechoslovak government to act. That was supposed to help him during his diplomatic meetings with Britain and France.

SFK – Sudetendeutscher Freikorps – were instructed to raid military and gendarmerie patrols, post offices, government offices and to start other provocative and destructive activities in Czechoslovakia. Mostly they were Germans living in the Czech borderlands, armed and trained by Wehrmacht or SS and SA.

Chamberlain visited Hitler and the result of their deliberations was the Anglo-French note, demanding the resignation of Sudetenland territory to the Reich. The Czechoslovak government at first, despite pressure from the British and French diplomats, refused.

Allies then threatened Czechoslovakia with complete loneliness against Germany and the government then had no choice but to accept. But the government’s decision provoked huge resistance in Czechoslovak public, which was manifested by massive demonstrations and general strike. After this the government resigned. 

First picture: demonstrations Second: General Jan Syrový, holder of many military awards and later fighter against Nazism. 

The new government headed by General and former legionary Jan Syrový, was prepared to defend Czechoslovakia. While Hitler prepared his troops near the border, partial mobilization of the Czechoslovak Army began.

Next: Second Republic and the Munich Agreement

Doctor Jarmila Weinbergerová from Karlovy Vary on 21st March celebrated her 90th birthday.

During the German occupation she was deported to Terezín, where she immediately signed up as a volunteer nurse.  Her parents were thanks to their Jewish origin sent to Auschwitz and Jarmila Weinbergová had to work in the branch of concentration camp Gross Rosen. At the end of the war she survived the death march. 

After the war Jarmila Weinberger studied medicine and found a job in Karlovy Vary hospital. Popular among both patients and medical colleagues she worked her way up to the District Director of the National Institute of Health.

All her life suffering and merits of here work were not any good, when after 21 August 1968 she refused to welcome the occupation troops. Quickly and without long speeches she was forced to leave her position and accept the work of assessor doctor.

“Compared to what I had experienced from the Nazis and ultimately what others experienced during the normalization, I still fared well.”

Now she doesn’t miss it. Jarmila Weinbergová is in relatively good health  enjoying life with her family. Only when she’s invited to the discussion, she tells students and adults how it was to live with a yellow star on her chest.

And answer to how to survive such a life?

“Always do something meaningful, do not succumb to bad moods, grit your teeth and realize that man is not alone with his pain and his problems.”

Ahoj :) Blog se mi moooc líbí. Je úžasný, že někdo něco takovýho dělá a jsem za to vděčná :) :D Ráda si posty čtu a leckdy se dozvím i něco novýho. Jen tak dál! :)

Moc děkuju! Dělá mi to obrovskou radost, když vidím, že někdo čte moje posty 🙂

I když tenhle blog byl určený hlavně pro cizince, je super, že si ho všimli i followeři z Česka a taky se tu dozví něco nového. Koneckonců ani já nevím o naší zemi nevím úplně všecko a při hledání informací k článkům se toho vždycky plno dozvím 😀 

Každopádně doufám, že se tenhle tumblr bude líbit i nadále a ještě jednou díky 😉