Czechmate: From Bohemian Paradise to American Haven

By Miloslav Rechcígl

These reminiscences are an intimate account of Mila Rechcgls saga, his fascinating life, his varied and successful professional career, and his highly visible public life, encompassing some fifty years, since the earliest childhood in a small hamlet in northeastern rural Bohemia to his government career in the Worlds Capital, Washington, DC and spending his retirement years in active scholarship and voluntary work for non-profit organizations. He views his life as a chess game, in which he confronts various challenges head-on, usually ending with a checkmate in his favor.

He describes his idyllic youth at family mill, in an area known as Bohemian paradise, talks fondly of his parents and grandparents, the time he spent in a one-class rural school, followed by eight years in gymnasium in Mlada Boleslav, four during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and four in the post-War era under the communist threat. After successful escape from communist Czechoslovakia, he immigrates to America, spending his greenhorn years in New York City, working in a glass jewelry factory. He gets a scholarship, is accepted by a prestigious Ivy League school (Cornell) and with skimpy English manages getting his bachelors degree in biochemistry in two and half years, followed by Masters and Ph.D. Gets hired by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda where he conducts some pioneering research on enzyme turnover and later is offered training in science policy and administration, leading to his appointment as Special Assistant for Nutrition and Health, and later is put in charge of research at the US State Departments Agency for International Development.

Beyond the call of duty, he publishes numerous books and in his spare time, devotes energies to organizing an international Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences into a first-class institution and does premier research on immigration history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456714468

Miloslav Rechcígl

Mila Rechcigl, as he likes to be called, is a versatile person with many talents, a man of science and organization professionally, and renaissance man by breadth of his knowledge and scholarly interests. Born in Czechoslovakia to a son of the youngest member of the Czechoslovak Parliament, he spent the War years under Nazi occupation and after the communists coup dtat escaped to the West and immigrated to the US. He received training as biochemist at Cornell University and later served as a research biochemist at NIH. Following his additional training he became a science administrator, first at the DHEW and later at US Department of State and AID. Apart from his scientific and science administrative pursuits, he served as an editor of several scientific series and authored more than thirty books and handbooks. Beyond that, he is considered an authority on immigration history, on which subject he had written extensively. He was also one of the founders of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) and for many years served as its President.

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Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Prologue

PART ONE:

FORMATIVE YEARS

A. The Land of My Ancestors

B. Growing Up

C. The War Years and the Aftermath

D. Becoming an Exile

PART TWO:

THE ADULTHOOD

A. Greenhorn in the New World

B. Making a Living

PART THREE:

AT PRIME OF MY LIFE

A. Eventful Year of 1968 and the Aftermath

B. On the Home Front

C. With the US Department of State

D. With the AID Office of Science Advisor

PART FOUR:

IN RETIREMENT

A. The Last Five Years in the 20th Century

B. The New Millennium

Postscript

Illustrations

Foreword

One of my greatest pleasures and honors while serving as the Czech Ambassador to the United States of America was to meet and to get to know many members of the Czech community living in the United States. Many of them decided or were forced to leave their home country after Czechoslovakia was subjugated by the communist dictatorship. They couldn’t live in an oppressed country, in a regime that denied rights and freedoms to their citizens.

Many members of the Czech- and Czechoslovak-American community not only found their second home in the United States: they also worked extremely hard to preserve, develop and spread Czech and Slovak heritage in America and in the world. I am convinced that these efforts, by which they made the American public and the world at large aware of our culture and our traditions also played an incredibly important part in helping the political goal of liberation of Czechoslovakia and the return of freedom, democracy and independence to our nations.

One of the finest examples of such members of the Czech-American family is Miloslav (Míla to me) Rechcigl, Jr. From the first time we first met in 1991, I have admired his energy, his dedication, and his love for both his old as well as new home country. As a scientist, organizer and researcher, he devoted his life to the Czechoslovak Society for Arts and Sciences (SVU), in a strong belief that it is through arts and sciences that spirit and soul of a nation perseveres and endures. And he was right. Mila’s whole life is a testament to the success of his credo. His personal story inspires, and his memoirs thrill–with so many stories of life lived to the fullest, and in service to the ideals that the original Czechoslovakia shared with the founding principles of the United States.

I am proud to have met Míla, I am honored to be his friend, and I am glad that he decided to share his personal story with us, his readers.

Petr Kolář

Czech Ambassador to the United States

Preface

When I started working on the genealogy of our family, my children commented that names and dates and complex family linkages by themselves have little meaning, unless I add a personal touch and include also some information on how we lived and what made us tick. They pointed out the example of my father-in-law, Dr. Paul J. Edwards, who, toward the end of his life, began writing his witty memoirs[1] but died before he could finish it. When, five years after they were published, my sister-in-law Helen Steiner,[2] and my brother-in-law Frank Steiner[3] wrote their personal reminiscences, I decided that I would attempt to do the same.

I never intended to write my personal memoirs which I always have considered to be the domain of politicians and important public servants or literary and artistic figures. As a scientist, I was trained to keep my nose to the grindstone, i.e., to focus on writing scientific and technical papers. To my knowledge, very few scientists had written their memoirs, unless they were Nobel Prize winners. My first attempt toward non-technical writing had its start around the time I retired, when I began publishing a series of newspaper articles and essays about the life of notable Czechs in the US.

Had I known that I would, one day, write reminiscences about my life I would have certainly kept a detailed diary. Fortunately, among my father’s possessions I found old letters which my wife Eva and I exchanged with him, almost regularly from 1949 until 1972. Dad wanted constantly to be informed about how and what we were doing and these letters contain wealth of information and particularly names and dates which I have long forgotten. In addition, we also found some correspondence with Eva’s parents. I found it useful to quote passages from them, because it added authenticity to specific events and, moreover, they accurately portrayed our feelings at any particular time. Many of these letters were Eva’s so that these Memoirs are equally hers as they are mine. Except for minor stylistic changes or punctuation, I left the original text from the quoted letters intact. My correspondence with Dad, which was in Czech, had to be translated.

I had no such resource material for the period preceding my coming to exile, and consequently the narrative is based on my memory or imagination. The events that occurred in the last thirty years, or so, were still fairly clear and vivid in my mind and, if in doubt, I was able to check on the specifics with my contemporaries. After I retired, I began regularly to keep notes.

I began working on the memoirs in October 1998, while spending a few days at our condo in Ocean City. The weather was rather dreary, as it was raining most of the time and I had little to do. So I began putting together a draft outline of the milestones in my life which became the basis for these memoirs. I then started writing individual chapters, whenever I had some time, not in any particular order, but rather what I felt like writing at that particular moment. During some months I did not do any writing at all. As I went along, my original outline had to be, of course, continuously modified. By 2005, the bulk of the Memoirs was finished, with some gaps remaining in between the chapters. I gradually filled in the gaps and then kept updating my Memoirs so that they were current.

Before beginning the narration of my life I thought it appropriate to first provide a background as to the place and the times I was born into. The geographical and historic setting of my birthplace with its cultural milieu and historic traditions that transcend a millennium had a profound impact on my development and thinking. It is for these reasons that I have devoted the first few chapters to these matters.

The Memoirs are arranged more or less chronologically, covering my formative years, the adulthood, the prime of life and the years after retirement. Through 1968, my private life was so much interwoven with my career so it made sense to discuss them together. After I became an administrator, my interests and activities widened considerably. I therefore decided to discuss each aspect separately. I actually lived three of four separate lives in those days, i.e., my private life, my professional career, life as a writer and editor, and finally as a volunteer in professional organizations, particularly in the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). My long association with and my activities in the latter were written in my personal memoir, published separately in 2008 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Society.[4]

I have tried to put individual events into some context and, whenever applicable, provided documentation by citations from literature and/or by adding explanatory footnotes. The Memoirs end in 2006, the year in which I also retired from SVU as its President.

Some readers may wonder about the title of this book, while others may even accuse me of not knowing how to spell. The latter may be correct to a degree, to be sure, but let me assure you I have chosen the title, which is of my invention, quite deliberately. I am obviously playing on words, as Tom Stoppard[5] would say. As some of you may have guessed, the Czechmate relates to the word Checkmate, to which I added the Czech flavor. Although I am not a chess player, I know what the word means. Just as in a chess game, I had to frequently face challenges that had to be confronted head on. Fortunately, with perseverance, I won most of such battles, frequently against all odds. That is why I have chosen the Czechmate for the title.

Before closing, I would like to thank our granddaughter Kristin for drawing the fitting picture for the book cover and Jiří Eichler and Christine Colley for helping me with the initial formatting and pagination.

Prologue

In viewing my life, in retrospect, I feel I have lived it to the fullest and have no regrets whatsoever for any of its facets. The times that I spent under the Nazis and the Communists, rather than weakening me, made me actually stronger and ready for the many challenges that awaited me after immigrating to the United States.

Nothing was ever served to me on a silver platter and whatever I have achieved I had to fight for. I always welcomed new challenges and, interestingly, I seemed to do best as an underdog when I had to prove myself and show that I was ready for the task and eventually came on the top.

I am extremely grateful to my beloved adopted country, the United States of America, for the unlimited opportunities it has given me, which have enabled me to reach my ‘horizon." Had I chosen another line or path, whether in business or politics, or any other profession, I am sure I would have succeeded just as much because all the ingredients and all the opportunities are here. It takes only one’s will and determination to attain one’s goals and aspirations. If you believe in yourself, you can accomplish almost anything in this country. There is no obstacle that one could not overcome.

I have never allowed any of my disappointments let me down. Actually I have always learned from them and used such occasions for turning my life around - for the better. My experiences have also taught me to avoid unnecessary conflicts, while not shying away from confrontations when a matter of principle was in question. I have always adhered to Masaryk’s motto, Truth prevails, and implicitly believe that a good cause must eventually override over the bad, irrespective how great obstacles or strong opposition may be.

Even though I have spent more than three-fourths of my life in the US, I have never forgotten the country of my origin. Czechoslovakia - the country of my birth - which will forever stay in my heart and I will always cherish the precious moments and memories of my formative years and treasure and retain in my soul the historic traditions with which I have grown up and that have molded my mind and my spirit.

PART ONE:

FORMATIVE YEARS

A. The Land of My Ancestors

In the Heart of Europe

Most encyclopedic works describe the Czechlands, the land of my ancestors, as a landlocked country located in the heart of Europe. It is bound by Poland to the north, Austria to the south, Germany to the west and Slovakia to the east. The country can be divided into two topographical regions:

1. Bohemia which is the western region of the country with the Ore Mountains rising in the northwest from the Paleozoic rock hill ranges while the wooded hills of the Bohemian forest lie to the southwest. Towards the southeast the gentle uplands of the Moravian Hills separate Bohemia from the plains of Moravia.

2. Moravia which is the eastern lowland area that lies southeast of Bohemia. The lowland plains of Moravia separate the Bohemian region from the Carpathian Mountains of Slovakia and have formed a narrow corridor between the plains of Poland and the Danube Valley. Moravia is drained by the Danube and Morava Rivers. Major cities (estimated population); Prague (1,285,995), Brno (405,337), Ostrava (314,606), Plzeň (173,932), Liberec (105,240), Olomouc(102,112). Land use: forested 33% pastures 11%, agricultural-cultivated 42%, other 14% (1993).

Frankly, I prefer a more lucid and personal description, as narrated by Karel Čapek, one of the best Czech writers. In his description, he talks, of course, about Czechoslovakia as a whole, which included also Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, as it was at the time I was born. It goes like this:[6] If you were to look for the country of my ancestors, you would only need to put your finger in the middle of Europe, half way between North and South and West and East This small land which is truly in the heart of Europe, represents the transition from Western Europe to Eastern Europe, the watershed and link between the Alps and the Mediterranean on the one hand and the broad steppes of Russia on the other.

It is composed of plains and hill-country where the great European rivers originate, the Labe (Elbe) and the Odra (Oder) and the Vistula, and also where the Danube’s main tributaries flow - the Morava, Vah, Hron and Tisa. The great and lesser valleys of these rivers and their tributaries penetrate the country like fjords, and their sources form natural gateways in the rigged, mountain barriers.

Geological upheavals which forever marked the earth’s crust and gave birth to the European continent did not, of course, spare this little land. Primeval mountains provided the foundation on which the sediments of the sea settled. The volcanoes burst forth and the convulsions that altered the contour of Europe wrinkled this country’s surface as well. Remains of tropical forests were deposited here, and the land was scoured by nordic glaciers. At the dawn of humanity the impenetrable Hercynian Forest and Pontic steppes ran hither. To this day you can enter forests that nearly two thousand years blocked the path of the Roman legions to the north. This is the heart of Europe from the perspective of climate and nature too. Here runs the frontier of the southern vine, maize and tobacco along the very margin of the Nordic forest. Here is the watershed of three seas, and the natural division between the north and south of Europe. The mild oceanic climate of the West meets the rude continental climate of Russia and Siberia. Still more expressively, however, though more modestly and monotonously to the eye, has the last of the geological forces - a thousand years of human toil molded this land.

You will find few lands that are so patiently smoothed by the plough, so intensively tilled to last inch as the soil here. Over hill and dale stretches the endless chess-board of small peasant fields uninterrupted to the frontier forests where the world still remains as it came from the hand of the Creator - inviolate and great.

It stands to reason that a land located in the geographical center of Europe was, from times immemorial, the crossroads of European humanity and its history. There are few places in the world where, beneath the surface of the soil so many memorials of the earliest ages of man lie buried as here. Beginning with cave dwellers and whole towns of mammoth hunters there lie one over the other the cultural layers of all periods of the 50,000 years of European evolution, and the bones of every European race, This spot of earth was successively overrun by the Celts, the Thracians, the Germanic tribes and the Slavs. Here the oldest European trade routes crossed. Here ran the northern limits of ancient Roman Empire. Here in the northernmost arch the cultures of Western Rome and Byzantium met, and to-day, as more than thousand years ago, runs the boundary between the Eastern and Western churches. At frontier mountains the incursions of the oriental invaders - Huns and Avars, Tartars and Turks - were held up. Here in the Middle Ages was the seat of the oldest university north of Alps, and for a time the political and intellectual center of the Holy Roman Empire. Here in the heart of Europe, arose the first attempt at a great religious reformation, and on this soil broke out the struggle between Southern Catholicism and the northern Protestantism - a struggle which practically exterminated the Czech nation, and destroyed its national culture for centuries to come.

Being exactly in the center of Europe means being of necessity in the very heart of every melee of history through which Europe has passed, and indeed this country has not been spared any one of the clashes of the races, of cultures and ideas, and has paid with her blood for all that happened with the rest of Europe. Yet here for twenty centuries the small and vigorous nation of the westernmost Slavs has held its ground; held it against neighbors far more powerful than itself, against whom, for the greater part of its often bloody history, it had to defend itself.

Historical Antecedents

O Bohemia

A common instinct beckons men

towards their native land,

Bohemia’s soil attracts her foes,

that swarming, hungry band.

And profiting from no man’s hand

she suffers sore that alien brand.

God save our native land!

Bohemia was bare of men

in distant pagan days;

had never known since time began,

the touch of human ways.

And when, that God’s will should be done,

the Slavic people came,

and Czech, our founder, filled the land,

it multiplied in fame.

Then other nations, filled with spite,

turned evil, envious eyes

on what till now they never sought

nor strove to civilize.

They swarmed into Bohemia

to seize our native soil,

to grind the Czechs to slavery

and live from others’ toil;

to impose their will upon the land,

to rob, to plunder her;

and steadfastly they seek this end

to dominate Bohemia,

or else to ravish her.

Where now the ancient Czechs that smote

the stranger at the gate?

For men today stand by and watch,

or some collaborate;

they rush towards their doom, nor yet

they realize their fate.

o fare thee well, good Czech! Stoop not

to worse humiliation!

the target of each alien band,

the prey of every nation.

God shield you, that you yet may rise,

from earth unto the skies!

By Mikuláš Dačický z Heslova (1555-1626), translated by A. French

Inasmuch as the history of my native country, with its glorious past, has played such an important role in my education and upbringing, shaping my personality and the outlook on life and the world, in general, it seems fitting that I devote a few pages to this subject.

Bohemia, where my ancestors were born, is part of the historic Czech Lands of the Kingdom of Bohemia, consisting of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, and at one time also of Lusatia. The origin of the name Bohemia goes back to Roman days, when the Romans called the land Boiohaemum because it was inhabited by a Celtic tribe the Boii. The Slavic tribes which settled the area around the fifth century called themselves Czechs, after a legendary chieftain Čech who was supposed to have brought them there.

During the medieval period the Czechs, together with the Moravians, formed part of the seventh-century state, governed by a Frankish merchant Samo, which came under the sway of Charlemagne. In the ninth century the great Moravian Empire emerged, of which the Czechs constituted the western part.

The principality of Bohemia, which emerged out of the ruins of the Great Moravian state, was strongly influenced by Western and Eastern culture, but Western influence clearly predominated. The center of the Kingdom was Prague, seat of the royal house of the Přemyslids. In Saint Vaclav (Wenceslas), the prince who died a martyr’s death in 929, the Czechs acquired their first national saint.

In 1158 Bohemia became an independent kingdom when Vladislav II (ca 1110-1174) acquired the royal crown with hereditary rights. Under Přemysl Otakar II (1253-1278) Bohemia reached a position of great strength. Přemysl conquered Austria, Styria, and Carinthia, and extended his possessions southward to the Adriatic. He might have maintained his realm had he succeeded in becoming the Roman Emperor. But fear of his growing power made the electors choose Rudolph of the Habsburg.

The Přemyslids were followed by the Luxemburg dynasty (1310-1437) during which Bohemia expanded, acquiring Silesia and Lusatia. The Golden Age of the Kingdom falls into the reign of Charles IV (1346-1378). The Czech king, who also became the Holy Roman Emperor, treated Bohemia as the heart of Europe and Prague became its capital. According to the Golden Bull of 1356 which regulated the manner of imperial elections, the King of Bohemia became the most important of the seven electors. In 1348, Prague acquired a university, the first in central Europe. The bishopric of Prague was elevated to an archbishopric, ending dependence on German Mainz.

For the church in Bohemia the reign of Charles IV meant increased wealth, power, and prestige, although the abuses began to soon creep in. In the following reign the religious question, together with the increasing penetration of Czech life by the German element, created grave problems. In connection with the general decline of the Church and of the Papacy, a powerful reform movement developed in Bohemia directed against clerical abuses accompanied by strong national sentiment. Finding its leader in Jan Hus,[7] a theologian, preacher and teacher, reform spread through Bohemia. Condemnation of Hus as a heretic by the Council of Constance and his execution in 1415 precipitated the Hussite wars, which lasted until 1434. Led by such men as Jan Žižka of Trocnov,[8] the Hussites successfully defied the forces of the Empire which undertook crusades against them. The Hussite wars showed the independence and dynamism of the Czech spirit.

In 1526 the Czech diet elected Ferdinand of Austria as their King. The Habsburg rulers then controlled the Empire, Austria, Bohemia, and part of Hungary. They believed in absolutism and were militantly Catholic. A growing religious conflict accompanied the political disagreement between the Bohemian Diet and the Habsburgs, since Protestantism had spread rapidly in Bohemia, absorbing most of the Hussite element. In 1618 two representatives of the Habsburgs were thrown out of a window in the Hradčany Castle in Prague by angry Czechs. The incident, known as the Defenestration of Prague, started the Thirty Year War. Unfortunately, the Habsburgs won and the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620 proved a turning point in Czech history.

The Habsburgs inaugurated a series of repressive measures against the Czechs. Because of their rebellion the Czechs were forced to forfeit their ancient privileges and liberties. Three quarters of the land in Bohemia was confiscated. Protestants were given the choice of either becoming Catholic or emigrating, and about 30,000 families left the country; the rest of the nation became Catholic. Habsburg ruthlessness deprived Czechs of their political and intellectual leaders and reduced the bulk of the people to the condition of peasantry. The German language was emphasized and eventually made the official language of the country. Czech sank to the level of a peasant dialect.

The enlightened despotic rule of Joseph II brought some advantages to Bohemia, such as religious tolerance and the limitation of serfdom. On the other hand, his strict centralizing policies, which almost integrated Bohemia into Austria, made matters worse. These conditions, coupled with the French revolutionary ideas and reinforced by the romantic movement, led to a Czech cultural revival.

The 1848 Revolution, which shook the Habsburg monarchy, opened great possibilities for the Czechs. While advocating a transformation of Austria along federalism lines, the revolutionaries also fought for the Czech right to become a free member of a Habsburg association of nations. Czech hopes for political autonomy were frustrated by the suppression of the revolution in 1849. Their hopes were again revived when, after being defeated by Prussia in 1866, the Habsburgs were ready to make concessions. But the Habsburgs chose to satisfy the Hungarians by transforming the empire into a dual Austro-Hungarian monarchy, whereas the Czech plans for autonomy were rejected and Bohemia was once more relegated to the position of a subordinate province.

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Czech leaders, notably Karel Kramář[9] and Tomas G. Masaryk,[10] a leading Czech intellectual, hoped for concessions from the Habsburg government, but they originally did not aim at complete national independence. Only the progressive disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the pressure of war and the reluctance of its government to recognize the right of its component nationalities to self-determination, led the Czech statesmen to seek complete separation. Skillful diplomatic action by Masaryk and the dissolution of the empire as a result of popular movements for independence led to the creation of a new nation, Czechoslovakia, in 1918. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 gave the Czechs the opportunity of winning complete independence and uniting with the Slovaks, Bohemia, the old traditional kingdom, lay in the past. Czechoslovakia, a modern republic, became the aim of the Czech leaders. The year 1918 saw the realization of this aim. On October 28, 1918, Czech independence was proclaimed, two days later the Slovaks declared for union with Czechs and the Czechoslovak Republic came into being.

During the era of the first Czechoslovak Republic Czechs enjoyed unprecedented progress. Under the leadership of Thomas G. Masaryk, who served as president from 1918 to 1935, Czechoslovakia became a stable parliamentary democracy and the most industrially advanced nation in central Europe. But after the rise to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1933, the significant German minority in the Sudeten border region of Czechoslovakia began to lean toward Hitler’s national socialism. Following the infamous Munich agreement and with the acquiescence of Britain and France, Hitler annexed the German-speaking Sudeten areas of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and occupied all of Bohemia and Moravia by 1939 and turned them into a German Protectorate. Slovakia received nominal autonomy that was dominated by Germany.

After World War II, the Czechoslovak state was restored by the victorious Allies but it soon came under the domination of the Soviet Union and from 1948 it was ruled by a communist government. After the Communist rule collapsed in 1989, separatist sentiments emerged among the Slovaks and in 1992 the Czechs and Slovaks agreed to break up their federated state. On January 1, 1993 the Czechoslovak Republic was dissolved and replaced by two new countries, the Czech Republic, comprised of Bohemia and Moravia, and the Slovak Republic.[11]

The Idea vs. the Sword

When one reads historical monographs and popular accounts, such as those by Alois Jirásek[12], one is struck by the bravery and military skills of Czech worriers and soldiers. which was amply demonstrated against the recurrent attacks and invasions from their aggressive neighbors and other enemies. The Czech rulers were not, of course, adverse to enlarging their territory in the process, which was the order of the day during the Middle Ages.

Thus, Přemysl Otakar II,[13] also known as the King of Gold and Iron, because of his considerable wealth and his considerable military might, defeated the armies of the Hungarian King in 1256 and again in 1260. This military victory allowed him to annex the Alpine countries - today’s Austria and beyond - extending his territories all the way to the Adriatic Sea. Some people claim that this brief period, in which Bohemia controlled territory bordering on the sea, is the basis for Shakespeare’s infamous ‘Bohemian seacoast’ from his play, The Tempest. He would have normally been elected the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire had not the kurfirsts[14] been afraid of his influence and power. Under John of Luxembourg’s rule, more territories, including the regions of Cheb, Lusatia and Silesia, were added to Bohemia. All of these regions together, under the rule of John of Luxembourg, came to be known as the Lands of the Czech Crown.

Czechs amply demonstrated their military might and skills during the Hussite wars. The mighty Hussites,[15] led by the one-eyed military genius, Jan Žižka,[16] defeated five waves of crusaders in a row: in 1420, 1421, 1422, 1427, and in 1431. Actually, the fifth army of crusaders sent to battle the Hussites turned tail and fled before even catching sight of the famed warriors - because they were so terrified at hearing the refrain of the terrible Hussite battle song, Ye Warriors of God. It was either that, or maybe just that the warriors didn’t sing very well. Well, in addition to fear-inspiring songs and the other tricks the Hussites had up their sleeves, they also had the thing that matters most - conviction that their cause was the just one. Their symbol was the chalice and their motto, Truth Prevails. (this motto was later used by the first President of Czechoslovakia, Thomas Garrigue Masaryk,[17] as well as by a later President of Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel[18] during the Velvet Revolution.[19]

When talking about their medieval rulers, Czechs don’t, however, emphasize their military exploits but rather refer to their political wisdom and achievements along the cultural and spiritual lines. So rather than talking about Přemysl Otakar II, they prefer to talk about Charles IV, who, besides being a King of Bohemia, also attained the position of Holy Roman Emperor. He brought them the time of peace with The Golden Age, characterized by prosperity and extensive cultural development. Another progressive ruler was George of Podĕbrady[20] who came up with a highly original proposal for the creation of a League of European Princes, which has sometimes been claimed as the first germ for the idea of a League Nations. His idea was to bring together Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, France, Burgundy and Venice, with the object of removing the Turkish question from the hands of the Holy See - in modern parlance, to give it a purely political character. There was to be a General Council for the reform of the Church, something to the nature of an international assembly or Parliament, from which the Papacy would be excluded. The constitution of the decaying Empire was also to be reformed. The King of France was to be the head of the Union and thus, in some sense, the political head of the Christian world.

Czechs early on recognized that an idea can be stronger than a sword, as they had shown in the struggle to establish their independent state in 1918 and when they overturned the communist oppression during their bloodless Velvet Revolution in1989. Paradoxically, it was the Czech liberal Marxists who laid the foundation for the demise of communism when they began promoting Socialism with Human Face which led to Prague Spring and later to Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. They obviously did not want to destroy communism but were motivated by their desire to save it.

After almost three centuries of oppression under the Habsburgs, following the infamous Battle at the White Mountain, one person who restored to the Czech nation its buried past and sounded a veritable clarion call for the future, was František Palacký,[21] the first great historian whom the Czechs had produced. His History of Bohemia made him the father of his people.

It was this achievement, whose full value can only be realized in the setting of an enslaved nation, a long neglected language. a hostile Church and a denationalized middle class, that thrust upon him the political leadership of a new epoch. In the opinion of many, what Palacký did for the Czechs was little short of a revolution. He brought them back to life, gave them courage and belief in a forgotten or despised past, and proved to them that they had achievements in the moral and intellectual sphere of which any nation might be proud, and the restraint with which he wrote only served to heighten the effect upon his contemporaries. In the opinion of the historian Werstadt, Palacký conceived his philosophy of history as an adherent of well-defined national religious, philosophical and political faith. Czech nationalism, enriched and hallowed by the ideals of humanity, justice and rectitude, wholly engrossed the great historian’s reflections on the history of his country.

Another world scholar who significantly participated in the establishment of the Czech national identity was Thomas G. Masaryk, who is credited for unifying the philosophy of modern democracy and humanistic ideals with the Czech democratic and humanitarian traditions. This dated back at least as far as the Czech Reformation in the fifteenth century and to Jan Amos Komeský (John Amos Comenius),[22] culminating in the establishment of an independent Czechoslovak democratic republic as a part of democratic Europe and the world democratic community, as a whole.

Masaryk’s conception of Czech history could be summarized as follows: A small nation cannot in comparison with big nations, based its existence, identity and importance on quantitative indexes or the external power of economics, population, or military superiority. Its chances for survival lie in internal value, intensity of output, labor, scientific and cultural activities, moral strength and truth. Its great history is not enough, national myths are inadmissible, as are any chauvinism, internal narrow-mindedness, trickery, martyr-complex, or waiting for external salvation by a mighty savior. A national identity cannot be built upon a superficial peculiarity or even on malice toward other nations.

The moral strength of a nation is based on its awareness that the national feeling is subordinated to a higher, humanitarian principle which supports one’s democratic world-wide view. The deference of one human being to another is possible only if they respect the principle of humanity based on the acceptance of eternity and equality of non-sovereign people before the sovereignty of God. Similarly, equal co-existence of nations requires a submission to higher principles.

For Masaryk, the Czech question was a world question, in terms of breaking through the barriers of narrow mindedness and chauvinism. For him, the term national was always subordinated to the term humanistic while the identity and the rights of a nation were subordinated to the human and civil rights of the entire mankind. Masaryk’s philosophy of Czech history contributed to the establishment of Czechoslovak democratic statehood, and the Republic was one of the most democratic states of Central and Eastern Europe. In the inter-war period, it created a respectable economy, created great cultural values and made an effort formulate the distinct Czech ideals of humanity.

Just like Masaryk, President Havel, who assumed Presidency after the downfall of communism in Czechoslovakia, was also a philosopher whose emphasis has been on civil society, morality and ethics. As far as civil society is concerned, he mentioned on one occasion that the Czech Republic is situated on a border between a world which has had a tradition in this respect and a world that is only discovering this dimension. The democratic tradition of the Czech nation, that had been forcibly broken, has now been restored. This experience has put us in a somewhat extraordinary position to understand the feelings of the new democracies and at the same time share the concern felt by the older democracies about the lack of civic engagement.

According to Havel, democracy is a system based on trust in human responsibility. This responsibility, however, has to be constantly nurtured and cultivated. The state should not believe that it alone knows better than anyone else what the society needs. It should trust its citizens and enable them to share in a substantial way in exercising the responsibility for the condition of the society. To this end, it should offer them a wide range of opportunities for engaging in public life and developing diverse forms of civic coexistence, solidarity and participation.

The Cultural Milieu[23]

The territory of today’s Czech Republic has abounded with culture from the times of the Kingdom of Bohemia and before. German, Czech, and Jewish influences have combined over many centuries to produce a rich and diverse culture in this region. Prague’s best-known Jewish authors, Franz Kafka and Franz Werfel, were among the finest German-language novelists of their generation. Important modern Czech literary figures include Jaroslav Hašek, whose Good Soldier Schweik is an archetypal Czech hero; émigré authors Josef Škvorecký and Milan Kundera; the Nobel Prize-winning poet, Jaroslav Seifert; and the famous playwright Václav Havel, who was elected president in 1993.Sculpture and painting reached a high point in the late Gothic period and the early 20th century, when Prague was a major center of avant-garde art. The 19th century produced a great trio of Czech classical composers, Dvořák, Smetana, and Janáček, while Prague enjoys fame for its earlier links with the Austrian-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Nowadays there is a lively jazz scene and heavy rock is another favorite with local people.

An era of continuous artistic development began here with the coming of the Slavs. With the rise of the Great Moravian Empire and the establishment of Christianity, the monumental architecture of stone churches developed. The first written language was Old Church Slavonic, developed in religious hymns and Gregorian chants. From the second half of the 9th century, the art of Great Moravia entered Bohemia, especially the architectural style of the rotunda (St. Kliment in Levý Hradec near Prague).

In the 11th century, under South German influence, architecture and book illustrations (Vyšehrad Codex) developed in particular. The Latin language was dominant in literature until the 14th century, while Romanesque art reached the Central European level, mainly in the form of monastic basilicas (Strahov, Doksany) and noble churches. Princely residences and palaces (Znojmo, Prague), Romanesque castles (Primda) and city homes in the tower style were built.

The 13th century was a period of the ascent of Gothicism, which manifested itself in the construction of castles and in ecclesiastic architecture of the Cistercian monasteries. Noteworthy Gothic structures still erect today are the cathedral in Sedlec near Kutná Hora, and the monasteries of Vyšší Brod and Zlata in South Bohemia. Czech began to be used as a written language.

Gothic art reached its peak during the reign of Charles IV and Vaclav IV, when the Czech lands became one of the focal points of European culture. The artistic center was the workshop of the Saint Vitus Cathedral, led by Matyáš from Arras, and later by P. Parlér (reconstruction of the Prague Castle, construction of the St. Vitus Cathedral, the Přemysl tombs, decoration of the bridge towers). Paintings by court artists Theodorik, Oswald, Wurmser and others were used to decorate Karlštejn, the cloister of the monastery in Emauzy and the chapel of St. Wenceslas in St. Vitus. Religious hymns attained a high standard and in the 14th century independent artistic lay compositions were written. The names of the first composers (Záviš) have been preserved to this day. Renaissance architecture was mediated by Italian builders (Stella, the summer house of Queen Anne), and in particular new types of secular buildings were developed - summer residences, imperial and aristocratic chateaux (Český Krumlov, Jindřichův Hradec, Budĕjovice), decorated with graffiti, wall paintings and stucco (Hvĕzda, Kratochvíle).

From the intermingling of domestic and Italian forms arose the shapes of Czech Renaissance, applied significantly in city architecture (city halls, patrician homes, of which Telc is a good example). Music groups of the manor were formed from among the serfs at aristocratic courts. Renaissance vocal polyphonics developed (J. Rychnovský, J. Trojan, K. Harant from Polžice and Bezdružice). The activities of the Bohemian Brethren and their translation of the Bible (Kralická Bible) also contributed to the development of Czech culture.

At the end of the 16th century, an international center of Mannerism arose at the court of Rudolf II (Vries, Spranger, von Aachen, Arcimboldo, and others) and a developed musical culture was cultivated. The post-White Mountain re-Catholicization brought new Baroque artistic elements which asserted themselves in architecture (the Valdštejn buildings in Prague and Jicin), and the design of the buildings of the Jesuit Order (Klementinum), and later even in representative buildings (Černinský Palace in Prague, the Troja chateau). Early Baroque music is represented in particular by Michna from Otradovice, B.M. Černohorský and J.D. Zelenka. Czech Baroque poetry reached its height in the work of B. Bridel.

The influence of Italian Baroque entered Bohemia in the 18th century and was the impulse behind characteristic Czech art of high Baroque. Architecture of this style includes the structure of K. I. Dienzenhofer and the work of G. Santini, creators of a specific phenomenon - Czech Baroque Gothic. In sculpture, the pieces of M. B. Braun and F.M. Brokoff are exemplary. Painting attained its peak in the Brandl painting synthesis of Baroque elements, applied mainly in portraits and altar pieces. Also of significance are the portraits by Kupecký, the wall paintings by Reiner and graphics by Hollar. At that time a number of composers who contributed to the development of world music came from Bohemia, among others these were F. Benda, J. Benda, A. Rejcha, and J. Mysliveček.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Classicism reached its peak in Napoleonic style, applied in sculpture to tombs and monuments. The stagnation in painting was rejuvenated by the activities of F. Machek, A. Mánes and J. Navrátil, who combined Classicism with Romanticism instilled with Revivalist ideals. In Romantic poetic composition, Máj by Karel Hynek Mácha revived Czech literature to again reach a European standard.

During the first half of the 19th century, painting reached the Classic phase through the works of J. Mánes and A. Purkynĕ and Kosárek’s monumental synthesis of the Czech landscape. Czech pseudo historical architecture found its own expression in Neo-Renaissance (J. Zítek, J. Schultz, A. Wiechl), the generation of the National Theater (M. Aleš, F. Ženíšek, V. Hynais, V. Brožík) contributed to the decoration of contemporary, monumental architecture, while at the same time the socially harmonious genre (J. Schikaneder) and realistic landscape painting (A. Chitussi) developed. Efforts to create Czech national music were realized in the works of Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, and Zdenĕk Fibich. The Czech Philharmonic, an orchestra which has become internationally renowned, was established in 1894. Czech literature was incorporated into the European context by J. Vrchlický J.V. Sládek, and J. Zeyer.

At the beginning of the 20th century, European influences from the generation of the 1890s merged with Czech tradition. Symbolism reached its peak (J. Preisler) and A. Slavíček modified landscape Impressionism. A. Mucha contributed to the development of European Art Nouveau. The Group of Eight (B. Kubišta, O. Kubin), the Tvrdošijní Group and the Group of Graphic Arts associated themselves with Expressionism and Cubism. R. Kremlička combined modern trends into an original synthesis. The painter of circus scenes, F. Tichý, refashioned Seurat impulses. Czech Modernism (J. Gocar, K. Honzík, P. Janák) appeared in architecture, which developed into Functionalism after World War I. Poetism (K. Teige) arose after World War I. The 1930s were also significant for the ascension of Surrealism (J. Styrský, Toyen) and expressive tendencies. Masterpieces of Czech literature were created by Karel Čapek, V. Vančura, J. Durych, J. Čep, Vítĕzslav Nezval, V. Holan, J. Zahradníček and Jaroslav Seifert. Leading composers of Czech music between 1890 and 1930 were L. Janáček, J.B. Foerster, V. Novák, and J. Suk.

More recently, Czech culture has made sizable contribution to world literature and music. The plays of Karel Čapek, František Langer, Pavel Kohout, and Václav Havel are well known in the west, as are the novels of Jaroslav Hašek, Bohumil Hrabal, and Milan Kundera. The Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1984. Besides Antonín Dvořák, notable Czech composers have included Bedřich Smetana, Leoš Janáček, and Bohuslav Martinů. Among scientists, Jaroslav Heyrovský was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1959.

The Czech the Musician

The noted music historian Charles Burney (1726-1814), who traveled through Central Europe in 1772, while collecting material for his History of Music, wrote I had frequently been told, that the Bohemians were the most musical people, perhaps of all Europe. An eminent German composer, now in London, had declared to me that if they enjoyed the same advantages as the Italians, they would excel them. I crossed the whole Kingdom of Bohemia from south to north; and being very assiduous in my inquiries, how the common people learned music. I found out at length, that, not only in every large town, but in all villages, where there is a reading and writing school, children of both sexes are taught music. In the 18th century, all Europe was flooded with Czech musicians, so that Bohemia became known as the Music Conservatory of Europe.[24] As Bedřich Smetana[25] proclaimed some 150 years later on the occasion of the groundbreaking ceremony for the National Theatre in Prague, Music is the life of Czechs.[26]

Bohemia and the Czech Republic can boast a musical tradition that is longer than a millennium.

The earliest surviving musical work with a Czech text is the litany Lord, have mercy upon us from the tenth century AD. Some two hundred years later, the famous hymn Saint Wenceslas, invoking St. Wenceslas, Patron Saint of the country, was written, containing the memorable words Let not ourselves nor or descendants perish. The Hussite movement of the 15th century generated a striking array of hymns and devotional songs that became an important part of the Czech heritage. The Hussite hymns are basically folk songs, simple, but full of melodious strength. The most famous of the hymns, Ktož jsu boží bojovníci (All Ye Warriors of Lord) allegedly turned the crusaders sent against the Hussites into panic flight even before the battle.

According to Czech musicologist Karel B. Jirák, one aspect of the proverbial Czech musicality that has received universal recognition is the multitude of extraordinarily beautiful folk songs, recorded and still partly living in all regions of the country. Each has its distinctive characteristics, from the western type musical formulation in Bohemia to the more eastern type in Eastern Moravia.[27]

In the 18th century, Bohemia produced several generations of brilliant composers, most of whom made their reputation abroad. Thus Johann Stamic and Franz Xaver Richter were leaders of the Mannheim School which influenced the transition from the baroque to the classical style of music. Jiří Antonín Benda worked in Thuringia and his brothers František and Josef in Berlin. Josef Mysliveček, Jan Ladislav Dussek, Antonin Rejcha and Jan Václav Voříšek achieved fame in Italy, England, Germany, Russia, France, Vienna and other parts of Europe. Only a few music composers stayed home, among them, the most influential was Francis Xaver Brixi (1732-1771), the music director of the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, a prolific composer of more than 400 works for the church. Another composer of note was Vaclav Jan Tomášek (1774-1850), for many years known at the Music Pope of Prague.

Interestingly, the first music from the Czechlands that crossed the ocean was brought by Moravians who settled in America during the 18th century, chiefly in Pennsylvania and North Carolina[28]. They belonged to a Moravian religious group that was formed in the area of Herrnhut, Saxony, who followed the religious and music tradition of the Bohemian Brethren, the followers of teachings of John Hus and John Amos Comenius.

The central figure of musical revival in the Czechlands in the 19th century was Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884), who almost single-handedly created a national Czech musical style. His comedic opera The Bartered Bride remains successful in major opera houses, as does his symphonic tone poem cycle My Country. Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) remains today the best-known Czech composer worldwide. His Slavonic Dances, the symphony From the New World, Cello Concerto, American Quartet and the opera Rusalka are played from year to year around the world. During his lifetime, he was highly acclaimed in the United States where he served for several years as the director of a music conservatory in New York City. He is better known abroad than Smetana because his style is more international, based on classicism. The third major composer who was active during Smetana’s and Dvorak’s lifetime was Zdenĕk Fibich (1850-1900), known for his melodramas.

Among the later composers, one of the most prominent one was Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) who remained unrecognized for a very long time. Only, when his opera Jenufa was successfully performed in Prague in 1916, his fame began spreading throughout the world. Apart from this and other operas, Janacek became widely known for his Glagolitic Mass.

During the undiscovered Janáček years, several Dvořák’s pupils dominated Czech music, including Vitĕzslav Novák (1870-1949) and Josef Suk (1874-1935), Dvořák’s own son-in-law.

Their contemporary was Bohemian born Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) who spent his entire career between Vienna and the United States. He wrote nine memorable symphonies and song-cycles. During his life time he was, however, primarily known as one of the world’s greatest conductors, in 1907 becoming the new director of the Metropolitan Opera and the following year conductor of the New York Philharmonic.

Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959), after a checkered start, became the greatest Czech composer of his generation, as well as international figure. In 1941 he came to America where he mastered symphonic writing. He was a prolific composer, writing almost 400 pieces, including 16 operas, concerti and chamber music.

On the music lighter side, a mention should be made of Rudolf Friml (1879-1972), Prague born American composer of operettas. The best known of his thirty-three light operas are Firefly (1912), Rose Marie (1924) and The Vagabond King (1925). Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957), a native of Brno, made Hollywood music famous with his exquisite scores for such movies as The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk and The Kings Row."

Among the Czech musicians who have lived abroad in a self-imposed exile, after the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948, the most successful were conductors and composers Rafael Kubelík and Karel B. Jirák, the brilliant pianist Rudolf Firkušný and two younger composers Oskar Morawetz and Karel Husa. We should also add to the list the world famous opera singer Jarmila Novotná who entertained American audiences at the Metropolitan Opera from 1940 to 1956.

Traditions and Folklore

Having lived in a rural environment during my formative years, I was exposed, almost daily, to local folklore, and lived by traditions that have survived from one generation to the next. These traditions, which were so natural in a country setting, were relatively unknown among the city folks.

Just like any other nationality, Czechs have a rich folklore and throughout ages have developed numerous traditions, a number of which are still maintained. Some of them have their roots in ancient times before Christianity was rooted in the Czechlands and are connected with all sorts of superstitions. Most of these traditions relate to a specific season or a particular event.

Most important traditions are observed around Christmas time. On the eve of St. Barbara’s Day (December 4), in the rural homes it was customary for the women to dress in white robes or white sheets or dresses with their face covered by a veil. They were called ‘Barborky (Barbaras). The white dress symbolized virgin purity. They carried a basket of fruits and sweets which they distributed among the children. They also carried something resembling a carpet beater which they used for spanking the naughty children, only symbolically, of course..

St. Nicholas’ Day (Svatý Mikuláš,in Czech), on December 6, has for centuries been connected with rewards, especially for children. Americans changed St. Nicholas to Santa Claus who brings gifts to children on Christmas Day. According to the Czech tradition, Svatý Mikuláš, wore a full white beard and dressed in the imposing attire resembling a Catholic bishop, with a tall miter on his head and holding a long walking cane, symbolizing his rank. He was always accompanied by an angel and a devil, appropriately dressed. This dignified procession went from house to house, rewarding good children with goodies and naughty children with coal. The devil, who carried the coal, and who normally was dressed in red, looked very scary with his symbolic pitchfork and the noise he made with his rattling chains.

The main Christmas holiday for Czechs was celebrated on December 24th, known as Štĕdrý večer (Christmas Eve). This was the time for Czech and most European children to get their gifts, rather then on Christmas Day, as is customary in the United States. It was customary to fast on that day until the appearance of the first star. Children who obeyed this were promised to see zlaté prasátko na stĕnĕ (a golden pig on the wall). In some households it was forbidden to sweep the floor in order not to hurt or sweep away dead souls who could be present on that particular day, because they could take vengeance on the family. In the same vein, it was discouraged to paint walls, mill or thrash grains, weave cloth etc. It was also forbidden to buy or sell things, as well as to lend or to borrow anything, in order not to bring about a misfortune.

The importance of Štĕdrý večer was reflected, above all, in the rich display of varied dishes. Although the menu had its regional differences, many elements were the same. The first course was usually oplatky s medem (Karlsbad wafers with honey). Instead of honey, garlic or wild rose was sometimes used. Then came the mushroom or fish soup made from the head of the fish. Mushrooms were also a part of a dish called Kuba which was barley mixed with mushrooms. The most commonly used mushroom was hřib modrák (type of Boletus), which had a dark color, thus the name Černý Kuba (Black ‘Kuba). The unique flavor of this dish was due to garlic. Another of the ancient dishes frequently was a pea, millet or semolina porridge. Fish, particularly carp, which is traditionally served now as the main dish, was not always available in rural households. Desert usually consisted of vánočka (braided Christmas bread with raisins and almonds) and apple strudel. The festive supper was started and was concluded with a prayer, spoken usually by one of the children. The table was covered with a beautiful tablecloth, on which was placed an un-sliced loaf of bread, vánočka and a bowl overflowing with nuts, figs, dates, dried fruit, oranges and apples, symbolically representing the harvest and richness of the land. Some of the served food was given to the cattle, some was placed on the roots of trees and some was put into the well. In some households, where superstitions prevailed, the leftover food was left on the table for dušičky (souls of the ancestors). My mother believed in having an even number of people sitting around the table. One extra seat was normally reserved for an unexpected guest. After we completed our meal, it was customary for Dad to cut an apple in half. If a star appeared, that signified a birth in the family. If a cross appeared, that meant a death in the family, which obviously nobody wanted. With practice, you soon learned how to cut the apple to get the desirable results. There were, of course, numerous other customs and superstitions. For example, if you threw a shoe behind your shoulder and it pointed toward the door, that meant that someone in the family would marry outside the house. If the shoe pointed in the opposite direction that meant that the future spouse would live with the family.

The customary Christmas tree was kept in a separate room and under it were placed presents. After the supper, someone rang a bell, which was the signal for children to run to the Christmas tree to see what presents they received. According to European customs, children believed that the presents were brought by Ježíšek (infant Jesus), rather than by Santa Claus.

On Christmas Day (December 25) which in Czech is known as Boží hod (God’s feast), practicing Christians were not allowed to work and not even the beds were made. A festive dinner was always served, consisting of some favorite Czech dish, such as goose. On December 26th, which is St. Stephen’s Day (Den sv. Štĕpána), it was customary to go caroling, called in Czech koledovat.

As in other nations, Czechs also celebrate the end of the year Na Silvestra, i.e., New Year’s Eve. One of the customary dishes served at these celebrations is drštková polévka (tripe soup) which goes very well with the higher consumption of alcohol. Czechs customarily like to sing, usually with an accompanying harmonica or a guitar. It was a culmination of the year, point of a change where the magic of the first day played a role. In other words, whatever you did on New Year’s Day (Na Nový rok), you would do the whole year. To start with, you would obviously take a bath, which the people in rural areas did not otherwise do on a daily basis. My Mother always gave us money to keep in our pocket because that would mean we would have money the entire year. New visitors on that day had a symbolic meaning. If a child or a virgin appeared, that was a good sign. A clear sunny day meant a a good harvest. Some people tried to wear new clothing because they believed that they would always then be dressed elegantly. People normally tried to avoid eating poultry because they feared that their good luck could fly away.

The 6th of January was the Day of the Three Kings (Den tří králů). Children customarily dressed as three kings, Kašpar, Melichar, and Balthazar, wearing simple masks, paper crowns, beards of cotton-wool, long white shirts in place of expensive robes, tied with a red ribbon or a scarf, and one of the kings had a blackened face. The three kings normally left a sign K + M + B on the door for good luck, using blessed chalk. This was also the day for taking the ornaments down from the Christmas tree.

The period between January 7 and Ash Wednesday was known as Masopust (Meat Fast). The last three days of this period Czechs rejoiced, disguised in masks. This was their carnival time, when balls and country dances were held. The dance participants wore all sorts of exotic masks in such a way that they would not be recognized, in order that they could enjoy themselves to the fullest, while making fools of everybody else.[29] In rural areas it was customary for masquerade processions to walk through individual villages, to the sound of drums and all sorts of noise, trying to bring to everybody’s attention the upcoming festivities. It was joyful, hilarious and lots of fun, especially for kids. These parades included a person dressed as a bear, strakapoun (colorful exotic bird), chimneysweeper, a Turk, Lord, an old man, an old woman with a basket on her back containing an infant made of cloth, farmhand with a wheelbarrow, or a plough pulled by children. Using the plough they customarily ploughed snow or mud in front of the village pub.

The concluding phase of Masopust started on the so called Tučný čtvrtek (Fat Thursday), when it was customary to kill a fattened pig. In our house we did the same. I still remember those joyous moments when, as a small child, I tried to help with making jitrnice (white pig sausages) and jelita (dark pig sausages, containing pig’s blood which gives the sausage its characteristic dark color). My favorite meat was ovar (made of pig’s head), sulc (headcheese), and scrambled pig brain with eggs and sauteed onion. There was a prevailing superstition that one should eat a lot on this day in order to be strong for the whole year. Čeládka (domestics) were given enough meat to take home to their parents. Výslužka (gifts) also included masopustní pečivo (Masopust pastries), koblihy (Czech doughnuts or fritters), fried in real butter, which were superior to any American doughnuts I have ever eaten, and šišky (long pastry rolls), another delicious Czech specialty.

Lent started with Popeleční středa (Ash Wednesday), with the characteristic fast. The 5th fasting Sunday (Judica), known as Smrtná (Deadly) or Černá( Black), i.e. the Passion Sunday, was noted for its custom of carrying out of a death figure (Reaper). It was represented by a female figurine, known as Mořena, Mařena or Smrtholka or Smrtka, made of straw, dressed in