Czechmatediary

Remember that scary movie called The Name of the Rose? It was based on the equally-named book written by an Italian medievalist and a philosopher Umberto Eco. After more than 30 years the author’s writing creativity has turned to Prague, specifically to the Prague cemetery ( you can hear sound of the hauling wolfs in the background).

The central figure of the novel is this cynical spy who is being sought after by the whole Europe in order to carry out various clever espionage or an assassination tasks. “Il cimitero di Praga” has 450 pages  and uncovers in detail the politics of the 19th century which also shines an uncomfortable light on today’s historical and political face of Europe. (more…)

Remember when we were voting on 7 wonders of the Czech Republic? Well, the votes have been counted and the results are in. Here they are:

1. Czech Beer

• it has its trademark in EU now
• the Czechs drink annually about 160 liters per person, which makes them the world winners
• the historical records of Czech beer reach all the way to 1088 (during the reign of king Vratislav II.)
• year 1842 welcomes the birth of Pilsener Urquell, the most popular Czech beer ever

2. Czech glass

• known for its high quality (on the home front and worldwide)
• it has been around since the 13th century
• Czech crystal chandeliers decorate the opera house in Rome, Milan’s La Scala or Versailles
• 19th century Czech artist Bedrich Egermann pushed ahead the ‘crazy’ thought of glass becoming a new form or sculpturing material

3. Charles the Fourth (1316 – 1378)

• The most well-known Czech king ever, known as the Father of the Land
• He took over the Czech lands when they were in a terrible shape and made them out to be the most powerful state (Roman Empire) in Europe
• A founder of the first university in Central Europe (Charles University in Prague), Prague’s Charles Bridge and other magnificent structures (more…)

It has been 25 years since the most beautiful railway station in Central Europe was shamelessly destroyed by the Czech communist government. The Tesnovske station (formerly called Denisova station) was replaced by a horrendous highway which now runs right through Wenceslas Square – the heart of the historical center of Prague (see image below). How could the communists be so insensitive? Well, the railway station was not as productive as the very functional planned freeway – that is why. It fits perfectly with the communist ideology. “The communists considered historical buildings to be a backsliding architectural style. Such structures were symbols of bourgeoisie and the communists hated them,” explains Zdenek Lukes, the architectural historian. (more…)

Maybe you guys have already seen this World War II documentary but if you haven’t you definitely should. Tonight! “Into the Arms of Strangers” tells a story of a kindertransport, a train transport heading for England that saved the lives of over 10,000 Jewish children, from which many of them were Czech. In fact, one of the interviewed people was Eva Hayman from Celakovice, who was about 10 years old when she boarded that train never to see her parents again.

WARNING: This movie is a tear jerker.

CZ: Jestli jste jeste nevideli dokument zvany “Into the Arms of Strangers”, hned si ho dneska objednejte na Netflix, abyste na nej nezapomneli! Shlednuti tohoto filmu je naprosta nutnost. Vypravi se v nem o tzv. ‘kindertransportu’, zeleznicnim prevozu 10,000 zidovskych deti ze zemi jako je Nemecko, Rakousko, Polsko a Cechy, do bezpecne Anglie.

Jedna z  dotazovanych osob je pani Eva Hayman z Celakovic, ktere bylo kolem 10-ti let, kdyz do jednoho z techto vlaku nastoupila, aniz by se v budoucnosti opet shledala se svymi rodici.

VAROVANI: Film vas asi rozbreci

One of my Facebook friends posted this while I was aimlessly browsing FB. Since I am a Prague girl I found these little facts quite interesting ;0)

CZ: Jestlize pochazite z Prahy (nebo jste pouhym milovnikem Prahy) a ztravili jste v Prazskem metru nekolik hodin denne, tyto fakta vas bodou zajimat.

PRAGUE METRO – SURVIVAL CHAMBER FOR 325,000 PEOPLE!!
The Prague Metro serves about 1,5 million passengers a day, which makes it the seventh busiest metro system in Europe.
But it is a piece of history as well. When communism collapsed in 1989 revolution 14 stations with names reflecting Communist ideology were changed to be politically neutral. “Lenin station” was renamed „Dejvická“ after a surrounding neighbourhood. „Anděl“ station was known as „Moscow Station“ – until now you can find there several pieces of propaganda art promoting Soviet-Czechoslovak „friendship“ (Czechoslovakia was occupied by Soviet army in 1968..)

INTERESTING FACTS
The line A of the Prague metro is a giant “survival chamber” built for thousands of people in the case of a nuclear attack. You can see the giant metal doors at every entrance. (more…)

The second part of the history of Czechs in Ohio is here (you can read the first part here) and even though I do not live in Ohio myself, I was engrossed in reading (and translating!) it:

‘So Gustav Adam, the first Czech immigrant to Ohio, was dead and what happened then? The Czech immigrant torch overtook Jindrich Hladik from Prague and a few Czech Jewish men such as Leopold Levy from Smetanova Lhota u Pisku, Bernard Weidenthal from Vestice u Tabora and Zikmund Stein from Prague. Levy had a fabric store  and Stein opened up a little pub on  Seneca Street, while Hladik owned a food market. In 1849 inhabited Cleveland also a 22-year-old Abraham Weindenthal whose offspring became excellent journalists.

In 1852 arrived to Cleveland 16 new Czech families and their beginnings were not pretty. Since the women were accustomed going to the town bare-foot and with scarfs tied around their heads, the locals thought of them as Gypsies. (more…)

Everyone has heard of Cleveland, the second most industrial city in the USA. But not everyone knows that all of its machinery was built  by the Eastern European immigrants, including the Czechs.

Ohio in the 18th century was inhabited only by Indians, while the land itself was fought over by the French and the English. While those two nationalities were fearlessly fighting for the land, the Moravian christian missionaries (Moravian Brethren) were fighting for the Indian souls. Besides Christianity the missionaries taught the Indians about hygiene, various useful crafts and farming. About 100 years later the main Indian colony located on the Tuscarawas river was visited by a famous Moravian missionary, David Zeisberger. David befriended the Indian chief of the Netawatweese clan who adviced him to ride down the local river to find a new home for himself. (more…)

Tomorrow is the Three Kings day, which is celebrated all over Europe. The Czechs do not celebrate it too much (at least we didn’t when we were kids) but I just found out from my Czech friend – who is married to a Spanish guy – that this holiday is even more prevalent in Spain than Christmas. In fact, the Spanish don’t even celebrate Christmas! Crazy, huh?

Anyhow, this is what Wikipedia says about how is this holiday celebrated in Central Europe:

‘A tradition in most of Central Europe involves writing the initials of the three kings’ names above the main door of the home to confer blessings on the occupants for the New Year. For example, 20 + C + M + B + 08. The initials may also represent “Christus mansionem benedicat” (Christ bless this house). In Catholic parts of Germany and in Austria, this is done by so called Sternsinger (star singers), children, dressed up as the Magi, carrying the star and singing Christmas carols. In exchange for writing the initials, they collect money for charity projects in the third world.’ (Read more about this holiday here).

What probably all of the Czech/Slovak kids know is the Three Kings song (My tri kralove jdeme k vam), which is sang usually together with other Christmas carols during Christmas time. Below is the video as well as the words of the song (translation of the words was done by me so it may not be perfect). Let us reminisce about the times of our childhood!

CZ: Zitra je tu svatek Tri Kralu, tak vam preji to nej, nej, nejlepsi. Je na case si zavzpominat na tu nasi pisnicku o Trech kralich  a tady je k tomu take pekne detske video: (more…)

I meet a bunch of very interesting people through this blog. Just the other day I was contacted by Jan Hanzal who lives in the Czech Republic. Does that name sound familiar? No? How about if I mention the names of some great Czech movies like “Tri veterani“, “Slavnosti snezenek“, or “Prazska petka“??? Do those ring the bell? Well, Jan Hanzal was one of the camera men who shot those movies! Isn’t that cool??

Anyhow, ever since 1991 Jan has been working on his own projects, one of which is also an exciting multimedia historical project called “The Dark Star Quest“. Please read this introduction and make sure that you send it to other people who you think would be interested in it!

‘ The preparations for multimedia project “The Dark Star Quest” begun in May 2008, following the steps of the historical messengers sent out by Czech king Jiri of Podebrady in 1465. Roughly forty quest members, lead by Sir Lev of Rozmital and of Blatna, had the task to visit and gain the approval of the European Christian monarchs and rulers to begin the creation of the European Community. The proposed concept of this remarkable and futuristic idea can be considered as the image model of our current European Union.

On November 25, 1465 the Quest began its journey from part of Prague and from part of Blatna castle, across Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, England, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Slovenia and Austria to return to Czech the spring of 1467. (more…)

A Czech newspaper called Idnes.cz wrote a nice overview article about the Czech St. Nicholas and how does his character varies in other European countries. Bellow are also some nice pictures from this year’s St. Nicholas Day (in the Czech Republic).

ST. NICHOLAS TRADITIONS IN OTHER COUNTRIES

In Netherlands St. Nicholas comes visit various cities and villages on a white horse. He and his helper Zwart Piet are then welcomed by the city mayor. The children are taught to leave their shoes in front of the door and leave their wish letters tucked in the shoes. Very often they also put in few carrots or hay for Nicholas’s horse. For these good deeds they hope St. Nicholas will leave them candy and not coal or a sack of salt.

In Poland, on the other hand, the St. Nicholas (Mikolaj) character is similar to our ‘little Jesus’ (Jezisek). Mikolaj comes to the Polish children one day earlier than to the Czech children. He then re-visits them on Christmas Eve and gives them even more presents. (more…)