Sunday, July 06, 2008

Additional Blog

So, I've set myself up a new blog: Commonplace Book. I created this for two (unordered reasons):

  • I'd like to keep the focus of Život v Cizine here on life abroad, and so I needed somewhere else to put my more miscellaneous postings.
  • I was worried that my webgeekstress credentials were being eroded by my time spent teaching English. So, setting up a WordPress blog, which is really so much geekier than blogger.com (which powers this blog), seemed like a good move. I like WordPress quite a bit: it's much more powerful and flexible than blogger, and I may end up moving this blog over as well.

The new blog is lightly populated with some of the miscellaneous postings that had appeared here. It remains to be seen if I'll be more dedicated to keeping that one up to date.

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Saturday, July 05, 2008

The Poor Czechs...

Today is the Day of Slavonic Apostles Cyril and Methodius, and it would be a work holiday if it weren't a Saturday. And tomorrow's Jan Hus Day would similarly be a holiday from work if it weren't a Sunday.

The next holiday on the books is September 28's Day of Czech Statehood, but that falls on a Sunday this year, so again, no day off of work. There won't be another work holiday until October 28 and the Day of Establishment of the Independent Czechoslovak Republic.

I observed to one of my students that, in the US, when a holiday falls on a weekend, the corresponding Monday or Friday becomes the work holiday. Her response to that was surprisingly philosophical: "Under Communism, that happened here, too. Now we have more holidays, but we lose the ones that fall on weekends, so in the end, we end up with the same number of days off".

Sts. Cyril and Methodius

While Sts. Cyril and Methodius are credited with being the first to evangelize the Czechs, the feast is more about commemorating the creation of the Slavic Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets and the introduction of literacy, and not so much about the preaching of the Gospels in the Slavonic language by the brothers. The Church, however, does celebrate the feast with a pilgrimage to Velehrad, in Moravia (near Olomouc).

Jan Hus

Jan Hus was a forerunner of Martin Luther, and his complaints with the Church had more to do with abuses of Church teaching and power than with doctrinal disputes. He refused an opportunity to recant and was executed in 1415 for heresy. According to Wikipedia, Pope John Paul II expressed "deep regret for the cruel death inflicted" on Hus and went on to suggest an inquiry as to whether Hus might be cleared of heresy.

Much like St. John of Nepomuk, Jan Hus remains admired by Czechs for his integrity and courage. Old Town Square is home to his memorial:
Jan Hus memorial
And a closeup of the memorial:
Jan Hus memorial closeup

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Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Garden "Event" at the Embassy

Yesterday, the Embassy here in Prague hosted an event, especially aimed at long-term U.S. residents in Prague, featuring "information on absentee voting procedures, consular services offered to American citizens in the Czech Republic (including passport, notary, and immigration services), as well as updates on federal benefits". I've already registered to vote, but I figured I might as well check it out, since I hadn't visited the Embassy before.

I must say that, while the gardens are perfectly lovely, the event was a bit of a snoozer, and I really didn't learn much of anything. It wasn't a complete loss, though, as they allowed the guests to visit the Glorieta at the top of the hill, which offers a splendid panoramic view of central Prague.

Prague Castle and the cathedral:

Sv. Mikuláše (in Malá Strana; not to be confused with sv. Mikuláše in Staré Město):

Looking out over Karlův Most (Charles Bridge) and the Vltava to Staré Město:

Looking north-east-ish (I think), up the Vltava:

Looking across to Vyšehrad and the basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul:

And Petřín Hill, with the Observatory Tower, Prague's answer to the Eiffel Tower:

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First anniversary in Prague

I completely forgot yesterday that it had been my first anniversary here in Prague. What should I do by way of a belated celebration? Should I do anything?

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Friday, June 27, 2008

No more pencils, no more books...

I taught my last two English classes of the academic year this morning. Whew!

Now to take the teacher hat off and put my student hat back on: that's right, Czech classes for me this summer! What fun.

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Brand-new Twitterer

Well, I've set up an account on Twitter: twitter.com/webgeekstress. I've resisted this for a while: after all, I already have my blog! But, hey, all the other cool kids are twittering, and I was feeling left out.

Unfortunately, the name puts me in mind of a former and massively unlamented manager. My description of her ignorance, lack of humor, and propensity for parroting the latest management idea du jour prompted my mother to dub her "Twitty". The name was so thoroughly apropos that not only did I adopt it, but several of my co-workers did as well.

I suppose I should feel guilty... it does seem rather childish now. I don't, though; in fact, I had a subsequent manager whom I think of as "Twitty Two".

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Sunday, May 25, 2008

Corpus Christi

For the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (formerly known as Corpus Christi), sv. Tomáš again had one of these joint Czech / Spanish / English liturgies. The reason for the joint liturgy was to ensure that we would have enough time for a procession after Mass:

We processed from sv. Tomáš to sv. Josef, which we entered and had a brief prayer and hymn in Spanish. From sv. Josef we went on to the Order of Malta church of Panna Marie Pod Retězem (Our Lady Beneath the Chain), where we switched to English for our prayer and hymn.

Aside: I've never heard of a devotion to "Our Lady Beneath the Chain". On Googling, the closest I could find was a devotion to Our Lady of the Chain, which originated at the end of the 14th century in Sicily, but apparently made it Malta early on. So I think this is just a confusion of prepositions.
The story in brief is of three young men condemned to die on the gallows. While awaiting their execution, in the church of St. Mary of the Port, they were chained, kept under guard, and the doors of the church were securely locked. That night, the guards that were on duty fell asleep and the three condemned men found themselves at the foot of an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They prayed fervently for deliverance. While they were praying, the chains mysteriously fell to the ground. The doors of the church opened by themselves, and they heard these words coming from the image of the Blessed Virgin: "Go, you are free, do not fear. The Divine Infant Whom I hold in my arms has heard your prayers and has granted your freedom." The prisoners silently walked out of the Church.
When the guards awakened, they went after and, finally, caught up with their prisoners. The men would have been chained again and taken away for execution, had it not been for the people who interceded for them with the King. The King, having heard what had happened, granted them their freedom, saying: "The Blessed Virgin Mary has set them free, so will I."

The final stop on our procession was the Infant of Prague church of Panny Marie Vítězné (Our Lady Victorious), where we finished up in Czech.

As on previous occasions when we've had processions, we gave the tourists a thrill.

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Saturday at Vysehrad

So, casting about Saturday for something to do, I ran across a reference to a Japanese Spring Festival at Vyšehrad.

Curious, I headed out to Vyšehrad.

While searching for the clearing where the Festival was to take place, I ran across a playground:

There were some wooden sculptures scattered about, but I have no idea who (or what) they represent:

When I found the clearing, people were just milling around:

But soon, they set up the drums:

Next, the banner came out:

I have no idea what this was, but it was brought onto the field next:

Finally, the games began. We had some mock swordplay:

There was drumming:




Next, we had the archers:

The participants in these displays all appeared to be Czech; they did not at any rate appear to be Japanese. There was a platform set up at one end of the clearing, and after the first round of games, some Japanese men took their places on the platform:

The main participants were recognized:

And then, it looked as though it was all starting over again, beginning (or resuming) with the mock swordplay. So, I pretty much lost interest, and wandered off.

The clearing where the festival was taking place was right next to the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul:

Closeups of the icons of Sts. Paul and Peter (respectively) that appear to either side of the rose window:

A nearby building has Elizabeth of Bohemia (the sister of Václav III, who was assassinated at Olomouc, ending the male Přemyslid line, and the mother of Charles IV) looking out from a corner, though why precisely, I couldn't say:

I wandered back to the clearing, and found that we were back to archery, so I continued my meandering and visited the cemetery adjoining the basilica. The grave of Milada Horáková was attracting the most visitors:

Mrs. Horáková had been a member of the Czech Resistance during WWII and spent time in Nazi prisons for her pains. She was subsequently an outspoken opponent of the Communist government, which executed her for treason in 1950. As a result, she is now considered a modern Czech heroine.

Even in death, (some) Czechs can be very particular about their titles, and you so you get "Dr", "MUDr", "JUDr" and "Ing" on the tombstones:

This tombstone simply pleased me: it's highly distinctive:

I believe that this part of the cemetery is reserved for the convent:

And, looking over the cemetery to the basilica:

Returning to the clearing, we were on drumming again. So I gradually wandered my way out of Vyšehrad. I didn't know what this was when I photographed it, but it appears that nowadays at least it's being used as a gardening shed:

I'm sure that it must have been built for something else, but who knows what?

And just a final shot, looking across to Prague Castle from Vyšehrad:

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Sunday, May 18, 2008

Fair at sv. Ignace

I don't know if it was related to the feast of John of Nepomuk on Friday, but on Saturday, sv. Ignace was holding a fair at Karlovo Náměstí. There was a swing set for the kiddies:

And a pony ride (I wanna ride a pony!):

There were craft booths:

And this being Prague, of course there was beer. And not just any beer, but Pilsner Urquell:

Of course, some people were content to just sit back and watch:

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Saturday, May 17, 2008

St. John of Nepomuk

Legend has it that St. John of Nepomuk was martyred by Václav IV of Bohemia (AKA Václav the Drunkard) because the king, believing that his wife was cheating on him, tried to force her confessor, John of Nepomuk, to violate the seal of the confessional. Most reputable sources think that the real reason had to do with a power struggle, with John of Nepomuk thwarting the king's attempt to hand over the abbacy of a wealthy monastery to a candidate of the king's choosing. A much less interesting story. According to Wikipedia, "John of Nepomuk is seen by Catholics as a martyr to the cause of defending the Seal of the Confessional, by romantic nationalists as a Czech martyr to imperial interference, and by most historians as a victim of a late version of the inveterate investiture controversy between secular rulers and the catholic hierarchy." He is at any rate very popular, and there's scarcely a (Catholic) church in Prague without a statue or altar dedicated to him.

His feast is May 16 and it's celebrated by a joint vesper service with the church of sv. Tomáš and the church of St Francis on the other side of the river, and I attended this year's service. After vespers at sv. Tomáš, the two congregations made a solemn procession across Charles Bridge:

The procession stopped at the statue of St John of Nepomuk to commemorate his martyrdom:

We ended up at the church of St. Francis for a closing benediction.

As at Palm Sunday, the tourists were fascinated by this quaint custom and pictures aplenty were taken.

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