Život v Cizine (was La Vie Expatriée)

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Spring in Stromovka Park

So, spring is putting in some tentative appearances: the snow seems to have stopped, the cherry blossoms are in bloom, and people are venturing into the parks. I paid my first visit to Stromovka ("place of trees") Park this weekend.

The weeping willows are drooping picturesquely:

The afore-mentioned cherry blossoms are on display:

And everything is beautifully green:

(And no, I'm not sure what these buildings are.)

There's also a planetarium in Stromovka, and I was thinking about visiting, as I dearly love a planetarium show. But the commentary would all be in Czech, so I decided against it. For now, anyway.

While waiting for the tram home, I noticed these paintings on the walls of adjoining buildings:

I'd kind of heard of Jiří z Poděbrad, though I couldn't off-hand tell you much more than that he was a King of Bohemia and that the next metro stop from Náměstí Míru is named for him. Vlasta, on the other hand, was completely new to me, and it took me a bit of Googling to find out who she was. Turns out that she is said to have been the favorite handmaid of the mythical Libuše, the prophetess who founded Prague. Libuše had been careful to protect the rights of women, and when she died, those rights were endangered. So Vlasta rallied the other women, and launched the Maidens' War. There is, alas, no happy ending. Which is probably why it's so hard to find out who she was.

Labels: Prague, spring, Stromovka Park

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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Liturgical Anthropology: Triduum

I was half expecting quadrilingual liturgy for Triduum, much as we had for Palm Sunday, but in fact, for Holy Thursday and Good Friday, we had strictly English language liturgies. The Spanish speaking community had their liturgies in St. Barbara's Chapel, just off the cloister garden, and I have no idea where the Czech community ended up. And for Easter Sunday, we had our usual schedule of three Masses, one for each community. For Easter Vigil, though, we did indeed have a Czech-Spanish-English-Latin mix, similar to that of Palm Sunday.

Holy Thursday and Good Friday

The liturgies on Holy Thursday and Good Friday were largely unremarkable. I was glad to see, though, during the ceremony of the washing of feet that Sv. Tomáš does not follow the practice of having only men come forward. Instead there was a mix of men and women, and even one child. There were, however, only 6 washees; I'm not sure why we didn't have the full complement of 12.

The only place where the Good Friday service departed from the norm was in the timing: it took place at 6:30 PM rather than mid-day. I think this was probably a concession to the fact that in this largely atheistic city, it would be difficult for working people to attend a mid-day service. I was disappointed, though, as I had wanted to attend a performance of Dvořák's Stabat Mater that had been scheduled for that evening at Národní Divadlo.

Easter Vigil

As at Palm Sunday, the quadrilingual nature of the service made it difficult to follow along, and I'm seriously disappointed with the way in which Sv. Tomáš handles this. I'm thinking that, next year, I'm going to give serious consideration to making a Triduum retreat in an English-speaking country.

It was gratifying to see, though, the number of people being received for Baptism: there were eight Czech neophytes and two from the English-speaking community. And that's the only thing that would hold me back from going on a retreat instead: a Vigil without Baptism would seem rather hollow.

At the conclusion of the Vigil service, we had a "Theophoric Procession", which was described to us as a Czech tradition. (I had to look "theophoric" up myself: it's from the Greek meaning "bearing a deity".) The presiding priests and the altar servers went in procession to St. Dorothy's Chapel, which had been used as the Reservation Chapel following Holy Thursday's Transfer of the Sacrament. They knocked at the door of the Chapel, which opened to reveal a statue of the resurrected Jesus. The statue was then carried in procession, followed by the community, out of the church, around the cloister gardens, and back into the church, where the statue was left at the altar, by the ambo.

Easter Sunday

For the Easter Sunday Mass, we again had not only a Theophoric Procession, but an "Encuentro" (Spanish for "encounter"). This is a tradition borrowed, obviously enough, from the Spanish. In this particular version, while the men of the community were invited to process behind the statue of the resurrected Christ, the women were invited (though not obliged - Father William was very careful about that!) to follow a black-draped statue of Our Lady out through a different door of the church and around the cloister gardens, in the opposite direction traced by the Theophoric Procession. Our two groups met in front of St. Barbara's Chapel, and the statue of Our Lady was unveiled, representing the first post-resurrection meeting between Jesus and His mother. We then completed our circuit of the gardens and returned to the church, where the statue of the resurrected Christ was returned to its place near the ambo while the statue of Our Lady went to the opposite side of the altar.

Labels: Czech Republic, Easter, liturgy, Sv. Tomas, Triduum

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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Night shooting

I haven't yet mastered the art of taking photos at night. At the very least, I think I need a tripod, but it may just be that my trusty little Canon isn't up to the task. I keep trying, though, and I'm actually quite enchanted with this shot of Týnský Chram (Tyn Cathedral):

Très surreal, n'est-ce pas?

Labels: Canon, pictures, Prague, Tynsky Chram

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Easter Markets and Pomlázky

Easter Markets

I was curious to know if Easter Markets were substantially different from Advent Markets. There are really only trivial differences. They're smaller, for one; in fact, Náměstí Míru didn't even have one. Most of the stalls sell the same touristy junk that they sold before Christmas, and the food and drink are largely the same. In particular, the trdelník stalls are hugely popular:

It's fun to watch trdelník being made. They start with sweet yeasted bread dough. The baker rolls a chunk of dough into a long snake, which is then wrapped around a stainless steel cylinder. After two or three snakes have been wrapped, the cylinder serves as a rolling pin to flatten the dough while it's rolled in a mixture of coarse, spiced sugar and almonds. The dough-covered cylinder is then set in a rack that spins the cylinder over an open fire so that the dough bakes and the sugar caramelizes. When the trdelník is all nice and toasty brown, it comes off the fire and is rolled once more in the sugar and almond mixture. Needless to say, they're best hot off the fire.

The main place where the Easter markets differ from the Advent markets is that the Christmas decorations are (mostly) replaced by decorated eggs:

Easter Market at Anděl

The Easter Market at Anděl is a small one: just a couple of dozen stalls. What I like about it, though, is that it has a pony ride:

It also has a couple of other rides for children. There's a choo-choo train:

And there's a car ride:

Easter Market at Staroměstské Náměstí

The big Easter market, at Staroměstské Náměstí (Old Town Square), on the other hand, has a much larger collection of stalls. In addition, there's a sort of little petting zoo:

The Easter Rabbit?

There's also a blacksmith at work:

Instead of a Christmas tree, there's an Easter egg:

There's also an Easter tree (there, behind the Jan Hus memorial):

Florists and Pomlázky

A few weeks ago, I started seeing these bundles of twigs trimmed with multi-colored ribbons at florists' stands:

I asked one of my students about them, and he became a little flustered and claimed (rather disingenuously) that they're just a traditional Spring decoration. It took me a while longer to find out that they are supposed to be used on Easter Monday, when the men whip the women to keep them beautiful and/or fertile. Not surprisingly, the men in my classes all disclaim any participation in this pagan ritual: "It's practiced only in some of the smaller villages these days", they tell me. And according to this article from the Prague Post, they may be correct. However, several of my women students have admitted that their husbands or boyfriends have brought home their pomlázky, which will be used for the traditional purpose. (I'm staying out of this: they're consenting adults and I've no reason to believe that any of these women is in an abusive relationship.)

And, it turns out that pussy willows aren't just for Palm Sunday:

Labels: Czech Republic, Easter, Easter market, pomlazka, Prague

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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

The camera returns...

So, I finally called Canon again and, this time, I was successful in reaching someone who spoke English. I explained the problem and was referred to an authorized Canon repair shop, which oh-so-conveniently is just a few blocks from my flat. I went in, handed over the camera with the speculation that it was a problem with the CCD. The technician looked at it, agreed, confirmed that this was a problem that Canon had agreed to fix for free, and told me that my camera would be ready within 14 days. He also told me how to check for status on their website. And so it is that, barely 10 days later, I have my camera back again: yippee!

Labels: Canon, pictures, Prague

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Sunday, March 16, 2008

Liturgical Anthropology: Palm Pussy Willow Sunday

Preliminary Note About Sv. Tomáš

I should preface this by explaining a little bit about Sv. Tomáš (St. Thomas'). The Church and monastery of Sv. Tomáš was established in 1285 by King Vaclav II, and we still pray for him every Sunday. It's in Malá Strana and is staffed by Augustinians. Apparently the neighboring churches of Sv. Josef and Panny Marie Vítězné (Our Lady Victorious; home of the statue of the Infant of Prague) are also part of the parish, although I don't understand how that works.

Besides being the official home of the English-speaking Catholic community in Prague and home to a Czech-speaking community, there is also a Spanish-speaking community that makes its home here. Mostly this isn't much of an issue. On Sundays, there's a Czech Mass at 9:30; the English Mass is at 11:00; while the Spanish Mass is at 12:30. On Christmas, it got a little more complicated, and the "Midnight Mass" in English actually took place at 6:00 PM, which I didn't realize until after the fact and so it was that I attended the Czech Midnight Mass.

Palm Sunday

For Palm Sunday, then, the three communities that make up Sv. Tomáš had a joint celebration that started at 9:30 at Panny Marie Vítězné. When I arrived at the church, there was a donkey on the lawn in front of the church, placidly enduring the curious tourists with their cameras.

At the door of the church, attendants were handing out not palms, but pussy willow branches. Which makes more sense than importing palms, although the mental picture of throngs lining the road into Jerusalem with pussy willows and waving them as they sing their "Hosanas" makes me smile. (Last year, at Sacré Cœur, we didn't receive palms either; instead, we got green branches of some kind - laurel, maybe?)

When the service started, we had opening prayer in English, Czech, and Spanish; the Procession Gospel was proclaimed each of the three languages; and the branches were blessed three times: once in each language. One of the boys of the parish was there, in a red hooded cloak; he was the "stand-in" for Jesus and was mounted on the donkey. We then wended our way in procession through some back streets of Malá Strana to Sv. Tomáš. Once there, I saw the main doors of the Church thrown wide open for the first time to allow our mounted "Christ" to go right up to the altar, where he dismounted. (I didn't notice, but I'm guessing that the donkey was led into the cloister gardens.)

Once the Mass proper started, we had a quadrilingual (Czech, Spanish, English, and Latin) liturgy, with the languages trading off rather than prayers and readings being repeated. From a pastoral point of view, of course, it makes perfect sense. However, I was disappointed by the way in which it was implemented. Maybe I'm just spoiled, but the Oakland diocese certainly knows a lot more about how to put on a multi-lingual liturgy! As it was, it was impossible to fully participate in, and difficult even to follow, the non-English parts of the liturgy. I must say, though, that the Czech choir is absolutely exquisite!

The language issue aside, the Mass was unremarkable, except that Communion was given by intinction (i.e., the minister dipped the Host in the Chalice before placing the Host on the communicant's tongue). The only other time I've seen that done was at Sacré Cœur last year, at the Mass of the Lord's Supper. But at Sacré Cœur, they usually don't offer Communion under both species, while at Sv. Tomáš, they always do, so this departure from the norm seemed rather odd to me.

Labels: Czech Republic, liturgy, Palm Sunday, Sv. Tomas

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Saturday, March 15, 2008

Night at the Opera

My Friday night visit to hear Martinů's Řecké pašije (Greek Passion) marked my first visit to any serious theater since leaving California. The opera is based on Nikos Kazantzakis's novel Christ Recrucified.

Brief synopsis:

The preparations for the annual Passion play in the Greek village of Lycovrissi are interrupted by the arrival of refugees whose village has been destroyed by a Turkish attack. The refugees are defended by the shepherd Manolios, who had been chosen for the role of Jesus Christ. Other villagers, particularly the Passion play's Mary Magdalene (who in real life is also the village prostitute), St. James, St. Peter, and St. John, similarly attempt to help the refugees, but the priest, Grigoris, leads resistance to their presence. Finally, in an argument, the villager Panait, the Passion's Judas, kills Manolios, and the refugees leave the village in search of a new home.

This was my first visit to the National Theater (Národní Divadlo), since it's not open to visitors except for performances. It's a really lovely theater (alas that I'm still camera-less).

The performance itself was wonderfully sung and beautifully staged, and I very much enjoyed the evening out.

Labels: Greek Passion, Narodni Divadlo, opera, Prague

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Obcan Havel (Citizen Havel)

Občan Havel is a documentary that follows Václav Havel during his terms as first President of the Czech Republic (1993-2003) (not to be confused with his term as tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992). It came out at about the same time as the latest presidential election that re-elected his successor, Václav Klaus. The filmmakers followed Havel for the 10 years of his presidency, and reportedly filmed 45 hours of images and recorded 90 hours of sound material.

It was shown (at least in some theaters) with English subtitles, so I went to see it as part of my ongoing efforts to understand my current country of residence. I was worried that it might be a bit obscure, and I did in fact spend a fair amount of time wondering, "Who are these people"? However, the movie was more focused on examining the man than on his politics, and so I was pretty well able to make sense of it. It also gave me plenty of fodder for conversations with my students, e.g., "What was Charter 77?" " What do you think of Dagmar Havlová?" (Apparently Havel's second wife is not universally beloved, unlike his first wife.)

I kept trying to picture a similar documentary about President Bush (or indeed, to be fair, any other American president), and couldn't. Any such attempt would be stage-managed to a fare-thee-well. Havel, though, appears to be largely indifferent to the presence of the cameras, although we occasionally see him being friendly with the crew (and his staff is not always similarly unaware of the cameras). And, while it's certainly a partisan portrayal, we do sometimes see Havel being superficial and/or petty, fretting over his dandruff or sniping at Václav Klaus. Mostly though, it's simply a thoroughly human portrait of courageous and principled man.

Last fall, I visited the French Embassy, which was open to the public for the day as part of European Heritage Days. When I got to the main dining room, the little brochure told of François Mitterand's 1988 visit to still-Communist Czechoslovakia and Mitterand's insistence, as a condition of his visit, that he be allowed to meet some of the dissidents. The Czech government complied, and Havel was among those invited to have breakfast with Mitterand. Reportedly, he showed up with his toothbrush, just in case he ended the visit by being arrested (again).

I don't suppose that the movie is likely to play in the U.S., or even to come out on Netflix, but it would be worth checking out if it does become available. There's another review here: prague.tv/articles/cinema/obcan-havel.

Labels: Czech Republic, Václav Havel

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Dutiful Pedestrians, Revisited

I wrote about Czech pedestrians and their willingness to wait on traffic lights several months ago. This past weekend, I particularly noticed the phenomenon again. I was waiting at a traffic light, and on the other side of the street, there were a couple of Prague police officers and another couple. The couple, after checking to make sure that there was no oncoming traffic, started across the street. One of the police officers started calling after them, but they ignored her until they had crossed the street. Only then did they look behind them to acknowledge the officer. I couldn't understand what the officer said, but from her gestures and her tone, I would guess that it was something along the lines of, "Get back here and wait for the light". The couple shrugged and went on, while the pair of officers waited for the light. I turned around to peek after crossing the street, but no, the officers did not set off in hot pursuit of the jaywalking pair.

I mentioned this to the students in one of my classes and found that the penalties for jaywalking, in Prague at least, are quite stiff. In fact, if you're the victim of an accident that occurs when you are crossing against the light, you will leave the hospital only to be hit with a citation and a hefty fine. That "The pedestrian has the right of way" is apparently an entirely foreign concept here.

Labels: Czech Republic, pedestrians, Prague

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Saturday, March 08, 2008

Prague Zoo and Trojský Zámek

The winter weather has been making me restless, but of late, it has turned relatively mild. It's still too early in the year to venture outside of Prague, so I turned my thoughts to sights within Prague that I've not yet visited. On consulting with some of my students, I was advised to check out the Zoo, Troja Château, and the Botanical Gardens. This sounded like a pleasant excursion, so I took myself off to Nádraží Holešovice and the bus for the Zoo.

Now I must say at the outset that I'm no great fan of zoos: I always feel so sorry for the animals. However, the Prague Zoo is very nicely laid out, and the animals have plenty of space. I still worry about the predators especially: some of the big cats were looking very restless, and I can't say as I blame them. I particularly enjoyed visiting the penguins and the gorillas: their pavilions are very nice.

Since it was so early in the season, it wasn't very crowded, although a good number of families were taking advantage of the relatively mild day to have an outing.

The amount of space given the animals means that the zoo is very large, and even after five hours wandering around, I think I saw only about 2/3 of it. But I was getting tired of animals and had other stops on my day's itinerary.

Conveniently enough, Trojský Zámek is just across the road from the main entrance to the zoo. The grounds are perfectly lovely: I'd like to come back later in the Spring to enjoy them in their full glory. I had to wait for about half an hour for the next tour of the zámek, so I had ample opportunity for strolling the grounds.

The tour was rather disappointing. While the architecture is lovely, I was unimpressed by the exhibits. The art struck me as rather pedestrian. I also thought that the ceiling frescoes had been badly restored: the colors were too strong and had been applied without subtlety. The resulting frescoes looked like the products of paint-by-numbers kits.

Language Note

Zámek is usually translated château, which of course is just French for "castle", while hrad is usually translated "castle". So what, I asked one of my students, is the difference between a zámek and a hrad? Well, he told me, a hrad is a stone, defensive structure, usually Gothic, while a zámek is a later, more luxurious, less defensive building. Fair enough, but then what is the difference between a zámek and a palác ("palace", predictably enough). Well, a palác is usually within the city limits and has no grounds, whereas a zámek has extensive grounds and is usually located on the outskirts of the city, if not actually in the country. Zámek is sometimes translated as "villa", which strikes me as more accurate.

There's also a wine museum: it's small, but interesting. It describes the viticulture of Bohemia and Moravia, and offers a wine shop. I didn't buy anything, though.

By the end of my visit to the zámek, it was nearly 5:00, so I decided to save the Botanical Gardens for another visit...

Labels: Prague Zoo, sightseeing, Trojsky Zamek

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