Czechmatediary

Here is a fun way to educate yourself about the Czech Republic. I promise you, this history lesson will not bore you for sure…

CZ: Mate chut na pikantni zajimavosti o Ceske repulice? Nize uvedena lekce v historii vas urcite nudit nebude….

Satelite View

The Czech Republic is one of the few inland countries whose borders can be seen from satellite photographs. The location of the Czech Republic can be best recognized by its border mountains on satellite photos made from a height of 900 kilometers.

Bohemia
According to Roman reports, the Latin name of the Czech lands Boiohaemum (Bohemia) is derived from the name of the Celtic tribe that settled on the territory of today´s Czech Republic. (more…)

Damian subscribed to this blog for two reasons: 1/ he has a Czech heritage and 2/ he received an assignment at school to write en essay about ethnic group discrimination. Hence his decision on what particular topic to write about couldn’t be easier: discrimination (or no discrimination?) of Czechs. Enjoy.

Ethnic Groups and Discrimination: Czechs

My family’s origin is the region of Central Europe now known as The Czech Republic and Slovakia; however, from 1920 to 1992 these two countries were joined together as one nation called Czechoslovakia. Before then, the region underwent several changes in name as the result of wars and empirical conquests left the region under the rule of Austria, Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire, to name a few. However the main regions historically are Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia (Czechoslovak, 2008 p.1.) To avoid confusion, most individuals with genealogical ties to the region can claim Czech heritage, but might chose to further identify with any of the three regions for more clarification, with the best way to do this by finding out what town or geographical part of the region ancestors come from.
In terms of people from this region immigrating to America, it is difficult to finalize a total as census records before 1920 when census and government records of Czech immigrant origins and birth places included Austria, Austria-Hungary or Bohemia, with Slovakia and Moravia rarely found on such records (Kukral, 2004.) (more…)

Kostnice (Bone church) is a small chapel located in the town of Kutna Hora. The name already uncovers the big secret: the church is a home to a lot of human bones. And when I say “a lot”, I mean A LOT: the sanctuary contains close to 70,000 human skeletons, artistically arranged to create decorations and furnishings for the church. There are only 2 questions I had when I saw all these bones in person:

1/ Why so many of them?

In 1278 the Czech king Otakar II sent one of his monks to the Holy Land in Jerusalem to bring back some of the “real” soil. The monk returned safe and sound and with a bag of Jerusalem soil over his back. Once he sprinkled it over the Bone church cemetery it became a hot burial site in the whole Europe and everyone wanted to be laid to rest pretty much there (result –>a lot of bones). (more…)

Would you like to know what are the cool traditions of Czech Easter (for the not-so-cool Easter traditions click here)? Or maybe you are Czech but would like to “brush up” on those customs? For example, could you explain your fellow neighbor what are:

• rehtacka
• pomlazka
• Skareda streda (??) (more…)
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PERNIK

Pernik (Czech-style gingerbread) has been considered a fancy pastry ever since its beginnings and used to be prepared only for special occasions. Where did pernik come from? No one really knows…some sources point to the ancient Greece and Egypt where it was used as a sacrificial food for various gods. The first pernik was more of a honey-sweetened bread than how it is  known today. In the Czech Republic the word “pernik” was first documented in 1335 in the town of Trutnov. The Mid devil pernik recipe called sometimes for more than 90 different types of spices! The most expensive pernik was made with honey - hence the name - the “white” pernik. In the 18th century the bakers  were making 4 types of pernik:

1. Marcipan
2. Pernik
3. Cerne sisky (black clumps) - used as a sweetener (more…)
   If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!

Many of the Czech immigrants who came to Canada between 1948 - 1951 could find no work. That is why various Czech-owned businesses such as the Bata Shoe, Hamilton Carhart, the Czechoslovak National Alliance, Opal Manufacturing , Staruba Industrial Corporation, Hesky Flax Products and others offered these “brothers” a new employment opportunities.

Immigrants who came after the Prague Spring in 1968 faced similar problems. This time, however, the government was ready for them: it offered language classes free of charge as well as the already existing large Czech community to make the whole transition process easier. That year Canada welcomed about 21, 000 Czechs and Slovaks. (more…)

Did you like the movie “I, Robot” or “A.I.” (Artificial intelligence)? These movies are a pure rip-off of one of Karel Capek’s novels called the R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). In this masterpiece Capek introduces the now frequently used international word “robot” - the non-human intelligent being. The word itself was invented by Karel’s dear brother Josef and it is derived from a Czech verb “robotovat” which is an archaic word for “working”. Capek is one of the great - if not the greatest - writers of the inter-war Czechoslovakia. Beside being an author of numerous fabulous books what was he like? Don’t be misled by his meek look. He had quite an adventurous life: he was expelled from high school, later married an actress and becomes a good friend of the president (T.G. Masaryk). (more…)

Not very far from Prague lies the mining town of Kutna Hora. It is definitely one of the shiniest gems of the Czech Republic and that is why it became the UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995. Thanks to the abundance of silver mines, the town became economically even more important than Prague in the 13th century. What really makes the Kutna Hora, however, is the Gothic-style, five-naved St. Barbara Church (Chram sv. Barbory) - one of the most famous churches in Central Europe. Peter Parler, one of the most known Czech architects of all times, started the construction in 1388. The building went very fast at first but when the Hussite Wars started in 1420 everything was put on hold and the temple ended up half-finished. Since the “roof” of the building was nonexistent, the common rainfall combined with the winter snow storms began to destroy the structure. (more…)

The classroom environment in the Czech Republic has been changing. Not only the children hide Intendos (and other electronic games) under the school desk instead of a sling-shot, but also the physical punishment has vanished. Schooling was very important to the Czechs from the start. Until the beginning of the Thirty-year war (1618-1648) the quality of education was very high. Perhaps the biggest reformer of the Czech education system was Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670), a pastor, teacher and a writer. He came up with the idea of so-called Universal education which means that everyone has the right to get educated. He also disagreed with any form of physical punishment. Comenius’ loyalty to teaching - and not only in the Czech Republic alone - earned him the nickname of the “Teacher of the Nations“. After the Thirty-year war was over, the quality of education in Czech went down the drain. It became so bad that many children didn’t even know how to read and write! (more…)

When the W.W.I ended the Czech immigration became less attractive because the new Czechoslovak Republic had a stable and industrialized economy. Job offers become widely available and the standard of living improved drastically. However the agricultural field remained attractive. Lot of Czech farmers came to Canada to develop the Sugar Beet industry and that is how new Czech communities in southern Alberta were formed (especially in Lethbridge and Chatham).

The inner-war immigration changed the distribution of Czechs in Canada, where more of them settled in urban communities instead of the country. The biggest communities were created in Ontario and Quebec, where Montreal (3,700 Czechs in 1920′) and Toronto (2,500 in 1920′) became primary Czech centres. Other new Czech “homes” became cities like Hamilton, Kitchener, Ottawa and Calgary). In the year 1931 the census counted around 30,000 Czechoslovakians in Canada. (more…)