Hody, Fašank & Ostatky - Festivals & Traditions

The Bohemian name for the church-consecration feast, from 'posvěcení' (consecration). Its classic attributes are roast goose, posvícenské koláče baked in every household and a dance; in many places it is a smaller affair today than Moravian hody.

THE Moravian celebration - three days of feasting, dancing, music. The whole village participates: lads in kroje, cimbálová muzika or a brass band, trays of hodové koláčky. Typically September-November in wine country. The word means 'feasts', from old Czech 'hod', a feast day (as in Boží hod, Easter Day) - the same root as 'hodovat', to feast.

Bohemian Carnival - a Slavic word: maso (meat) + pustit (to let go), the farewell to meat before Lent. Far from tame: the door-to-door masked processions of the Hlinsko area in eastern Bohemia were inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2010, and many Bohemian towns have revived their masopust since the 1990s.

Moravian Carnival - from German 'Fasching,' reflecting Moravia's deep Austrian ties. But the tradition predates the word: pre-Christian fertility rites with masked figures (bear, Turk, bride-groom pair) going door to door. Wild, loud, deeply communal.

Used in Bohemia too, but more as a calendar term. From 'ostatní' (remaining) - the remaining days before Lent begins. Less emotionally charged than in Moravia.

Same word, different weight. In Moravia, ostatky is a serious event - the culmination of fašank, the night when the masked procession buries the bass (symbolic end of carnival), and the community says goodbye to meat and joy until Easter.

Bohemian folk costumes exist but are mostly museum pieces or festival reenactments. Simpler designs, less regional variation. Few Bohemians could name their village's specific kroj.

In Moravia, kroje are ALIVE - worn at hody, weddings, fašank. UNESCO-level elaborate: hand-embroidered, region-specific down to the village. You can identify the exact village by the embroidery pattern, ribbon color, and headscarf style. Families pass them down for generations.

No Bohemian equivalent. Bohemia has polka (which it gave the world in the 1830s) and other couple dances, but nothing like the solo male improvisation of verbuňk.

Proclaimed a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage in 2005 and inscribed on the Representative List in 2008. Each dancer improvises his own choreography to cimbálová muzika - leaps, heel-clicks, spins, stamps. Originally a military recruiting dance (from German 'Werbung', recruitment). Every village has its own verbuňk tradition.

Not part of Bohemian folk music tradition. Bohemian folk music relies on fiddles, clarinets, brass, and in South Bohemia, bagpipes (dudy). The sound palette is completely different.

THE sound of Moravia. A large trapezoidal stringed instrument struck with small mallets. Came via Hungarian/Roma tradition. A cimbálová muzika (cimbál band: cimbál + violin + viola + bass) is the standard ensemble at hody, weddings, and wine cellars across South Moravia.

Bohemia has its own festival koláče: posvícenské koláče, baked by the trayful in every household for posvícení, small and round with tvaroh, povidla or poppy seed. In West Bohemia the large chodský koláč carries three fillings at once.

Trays of small koláčky baked by every household for hody - with tvaroh, poppy seed, plum jam, walnuts - and handed round to guests and neighbours for three days. Sharing them is part of the feast.

Standard Czech word for apron. In Bohemian folk costume contexts, a plain functional garment - often just part of a work outfit.

A dialect word for the ornate apron worn over the skirt in kroj - from German 'Vortuch' (front cloth). It is not Moravian only: older Bohemian speech and folk costume knew it too. In Moravian kroj it is richly embroidered, often the most decorative single piece of the women's costume. The spelling varies by sub-region.

Standard word for sleeves. In Bohemian folk costume, sleeves are typically simpler - gathered or pleated but rarely the centerpiece of the outfit.

In Slovácko, rukávce is the name of the women's kroj blouse itself, made famous by its wide, puffed, starched sleeves, often heavily embroidered. The sleeves can stand far out from the arm, and the embroidery pattern identifies the village.

General Czech word for scarf/kerchief. In Bohemian folk costume, usually a simple printed or woven kerchief. Less variety than Moravian equivalents.

Same word, but in Moravian kroj the šátek is an art form: silk or brocade, tied in region-specific styles, often with gold thread embroidery. Married women, unmarried girls, and widows each have different headscarves. The tying method alone can indicate marital status, village, and occasion.

A big sound of Bohemian celebrations: brass bands playing polkas, waltzes and marches at posvícení, village fairs and in beer gardens. Think Kmochova hudba, the iconic Kolín brass band tradition. Trumpets, trombones, tubas - loud, cheerful, oom-pah-pah. Moravia has a strong brass tradition too, as the next card shows.

The emblematic Moravian folk ensemble: cimbál (dulcimer) + primáš (lead violin) + secondary violin + viola (kontra) + double bass (basa). Intimate, melodic, capable of wild tempo changes. But South Moravia also has one of the country's strongest brass traditions: dechovka plays at many hody, and Moravanka made Slovácko brass famous nationwide.

Bohemia's gift to the world! Born in the Elbe (Labe) region around 1830, supposedly invented by a servant girl named Anna Slezáková in Labská Týnice. Spread across Europe within a decade. The word may come from 'půlka' (half-step). Bohemia's most famous dance export.

Polka and waltz are danced at Moravian hody too, usually to a dechovka (Moravanka built its fame on Slovácko polkas). What Bohemia lacks is verbuňk (solo male) and sedlácká (a couple dance with stamping, from Slovácko). Those are Moravia's own.

A tradition of South Bohemia (Strakonice) and West Bohemia (the Chodsko region around Domažlice). The Czech dudy have a distinctive nasal tone. The Chodské slavnosti in Domažlice and the international bagpipe festival in Strakonice are the main showcases. Not common elsewhere in Bohemia.

Moravian/Slovak variant of bagpipes, found in Moravian Wallachia and the Moravian-Slovak borderlands. The word 'gajdy' (from Hungarian/Balkan roots) rather than 'dudy' marks the cultural divide. Less prominent than cimbál but present in the oldest folk music layer.

Bohemia has its own ballad tradition: Karel Jaromír Erben collected Bohemian folk songs and built his poetry collection Kytice (1853) on folk ballad motifs. Today 'písnička' is the everyday word for any song.

Moravian ballads are famous for their length and drama (love, betrayal, war, death), and many are still sung. Leoš Janáček and František Bartoš published thousands of songs in Národní písně moravské v nově nasbírané (1899-1901). Note: 'rozprávka' in eastern Moravia is a tale told aloud (Slovak 'rozprávka' is a fairy tale), not a kind of song.