Today’s information is as shocking as the headline, Alice Masaryk Arrested & Held in Prison. Below we are sharing a reprint of an article written in 1974, with quotes and images added by us. Original source information at the end. It’s an important history lesson and it shares something many folks don’t even know –...
The following article entitled Czechoslovaks, Yankees of Europe appeared in a very old issue of National Geographic magazine from August of 1938. A wonderful 52 page article with 30 “cyclorama” color photographs. It is an excellent piece which shows us the Czech lands pre-World War II. As the title suggests, author John Patric found a...
Today we have a guest post article on the stitching of traditional Czech aprons. Often seen over a kroj, many people believe these Czech aprons are a part of traditional kroje, but they are also a stand alone apron. We hope you enjoy the article… My Czechoslovakian mother and grandmother gave up trying to teach...
Oh my goodness, have you ever seen anything so lovely? I am literally drooling over this one. My friend Lynette embroiders and she’s been playing with some Bohemian, Moravian and Slovak designs. Some of the items she creates are absolutely stunning… Like this beautiful coat. This coat is an eye-catcher. Have you ever seen anything...
Picture a tiny village in Eastern Europe, surrounded by forests and vineyards. Roses and daisies riot in front of small white-washed cottages. A tall-steepled church dominates the dusty village, and the road to the church is filled with blazing colors. It’s the matrons of Ratiskovice, Czechoslovakia, on their way to church in their richly embroidered...
Zem spieva (The Earth Sings) is a 1933 Czech documentary film written and directed by Karel Plicka (in Slovak: Karol Plicka) (1894 – 1987), a Czechoslovak photographer, film director, cinematographer, folklorist, and pedagogue. He is considered a founder of Slovak film education and film making. He helped establish the genre of ethnographic film in Czechoslovakia. Following Karel Plicka’s graduation...
Located in a whimsical part of Prague that many tourists do not venture to, is the abandoned Vyšehrad Train Station. This Art Nouveau gem sits quietly in her old grandeur, a crumbling boarded up beauty laden with graffiti just waiting (like many other gorgeous structures in the city of Prague) for a new face-lift. Seeing...
Let’s travel back in time, to 1920, and take a look at Dr. Miroslav Tyrš Founder of the Czech Sokol Union. Miroslav Tyrš was actually born as Friedrich Emanuel Tirsch on September 17, 1832 and died on August 8, 1884. He was a Czech art historian, sports organizer and as we’ll learn today, the founder of...
If you are a lover of Everything Czech and are especially fascinated with Czechs in America, then surely you have heard of the Rosický’s of Omaha or come across A History of Czechs (Bohemians) in Nebraska. Compiled by Rose Rosicky (Růžena Rosicka) in Omaha, Nebraska in 1929. This special historical book (documents all important Czech...
Introduction This paper explores a wedding custom practiced for more than one hundred years in the Chicago area by the descendants of Czech, Polish and Slovak immigrant women. Through the custom’s existence and perpetuation in America, the role of a transitional rite of passage is chronicled in both the process of assimilation and the preservation...
The communist regime did not tolerate listening to Western music. They believed that the live concerts of imperialist artists were taboo. So how is it that on March 11, 1988 Depeche Mode was allowed to come to the Sports Hall in Prague of then-called Czechoslovakia? The Depeche Mode concert in the CSSR is one of...
Děčín is a town located in the northern part of the Czech Republic. Decin (called Tetschen in German) was settled by the Slavic tribe of Decane in the 9th century, thus it’s believed this is how it got its name. Děčín it is located in the Ústí nad Labem Region in the north of the...
The Old-New Synagogue in Prague is the oldest and most historic Synagogue in Europe. Inaugurated in 1270, the Altneuschul or Old New Synagogue is the oldest continually active synagogue in all of Europe. Below is a circa 1900 Czech postcard showing a bird’s eye view of this famous Synagogue. All buildings in the complex are...
In Kraslice, a city known as the cradle of musical instrument production in Bohemia, the records of the production of stringed instruments can be seen all the way back to the first half of the 17th century. By the 18th century, the music industry had made a leap from producing strictly violins to wind instruments. Before...
