Click and visit our BLOG.
Travelers and local guides are welcomed to share their experience and read current the info on Prague. Favorite topics: Prague cafes, Tours with the Personal Prague Guide - References

Spring festivities in the Czech Republic

Easter Fairs
The largest Easter Fairs take place in the Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square in Prague. From March 8 until March 30 you can see the decorated birch trees, the colorful decoration of the stalls and the interesting cultural programme: painting of Easter eggs, plaiting of the willow whips (pomlázky). Stand opening hours: Mon. - Fri. 9 a.m. - 7 (8) p.m
Program of the Market in the Old Town Square - 8 March at 4 p.m. - Easter market opening,17 March - St. Patrick`s Day: , 4 - 5 p.m. Irish music , 5 - 6 p.m. irish dance , 6 - 7 p.m. Irish songs , 20 March 4.30 - 7 p.m. Easter records and curiosities , 29 March 3 - 4.10 p.m. Young 2008 Prague festival

Easter concerts and Religious sermons
The spiritual aspect of Easter is recalled by masses held in churches and by concerts. The Easter concerts in the Basilica of St James (www.auditeorganum.cz) - always at 23 and 30 March at 5 p.m.

Religious sermons relating to the days of the Passion are held in churches during the Holy Week (the week before Easter): "Flower" Sunday (Christ enters Jerusalem), "Green" Thursday (Jesus is praying on a green meadow), Good Friday (Jesus is sentenced to death and crucified), "White" Saturday (Jesus' body is removed from the cross and laid into a tomb), Easter Sunday (celebration of Jesus Christ's Resurrection).
List of the Easter Services

Easter Traditions

Pomlázka - Whip you girl to ensure her health and beauty! :-)
On Easter Monday the local boys come to visit gils and women with the plaited willow whip "pomlázka" and whip them symbolically. (Sarka`s note: but it hurts!!!:-) The aim is not to harm the women, but to ensure them health and beauty for the coming year.  The boys are not punished for this, but rewarded with colored eggs or sweets.
Another tradition to ensure the beauty: kiss your love beneath a flowering cherry tree on May 1.
In the countryside, on the May 1 the young single men set up a May Tree or "májka" (a tree stripped of branches and decorated with flowers and streamers), which is also a symbol of spring.

Kraslice - hand-painted Easter eggs.
An egg is a symbol of fertility and also "new life, resurection". Eggs are decorated by girls and women, they give them to Easter carolers on Easter Monday when they come to lash them with "pomlazka". In the Prague marjkets you will see beautiful hand-painted Easter eggs, and eggs decorated by different techniques - so called "kraslice".

Easter meals
Czch woman bake various sweet pastries such as the sponge "Beránek" (lamb) with a coating of sugar or chocolate, sweet bread "Mazanec or Bochánek" (Easter buns) of yeast dough, Easter gingerbread, "jidáše" (Judas rolls, which resemble a rope in shape) or fried boží milosti (God's Grace) coated in sugar. 
Easter pudding with nettles or parsley, and possibly roast lamb, and anything else that a family likes is served for Easter lunch.

Click and see the website related to Easter.

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK:

Easter at the Prague Písecka Gate (Písecká brána)
Písecká brána, K Brusce 5/208, Prague 6 - Hradcany, tel. 220 612 222, www.piseckabrana.cz (Take a tram 22 direction to the castle - get off at "Kralovsky letohradek" and walk 5 minutes north.)
Open daily except Mon. 1 p.m. - 8 p.m. Admission free. 9 - 24 March. Exhibition of Easter traditions
9 March. Lenten Sunday - noon - 5 p.m. exhibition opening and procession carrying out the symbol of winter, Morana 2 p.m. - 3 p.m. Easter workshops (braiding Easter switches, decorating tree braches, production of Easter decorations) noon - 5 p.m.
16 March. Palm Sunday - noon - 5 p.m. Rosénka folklore ensemble - performance - 3 p.m. Easter workshops (braiding Easter switches, decorating tree braches, production of Easter decorations) noon - 5 p.m.
20 March. Green Thursday Rosénka folklore ensemble - performance - 3 p.m. Discussion on Easter traditions 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Easter in open-air museums
How was Easter celebrated in the past? Open-air museums and other museums have themed programs where you can try out some of the old customs for yourself. More details at: Private Tours of: Open air folk museum - Přerov, Kourim. Historic working hamlet - Botanicus

Prague Spring - Music Festival

Book the tickets in time! The famous 62nd International Music Festival Prague Spring will be held from 12 May - 4 June 2007.

Related website: http://festival.cz.

Surprising sculptures - all around Prague!

What is the point of the little creatures? The independent street artist Honza Kalab, who goes by the name of "Point", has put up scores of sculptures on buildings around Prague (about 200). His pieces, made from gypsum, come in various colors but take the same form, with the letters of his pseudonym arranged to look like a little dragon. Honza Kalab's studio is a cold, disused electricity transformer station in Prague 9.

Related website: www.onepoint.cz, www.radio.cz.

Sarka got married and changed name into Šárka Kačabová

You can see some pictures at: Wedding pictures. (in Picasa web albums).

Then we almost divorced :-), when creating the NEW MAP & FLYER • Get our FLYER 2007 in PDF