Martinmas, the feast of St. Martin of Tours is traditionally celebrated on November 11. St. Martin was a Roman Catholic saint, the bishop of Tours, who lived in the years 316 – 397. The most- repeated story about his life says that while he was a soldier, he encountered a scantily dressed beggar at the gate of the city of Amiens. He cut his military woolen cloak in half and shared it with the freezing man. The following night he had a vision of Jesus Christ, surrounded by Angels, and arrayed in the half of the cloak. As a consequence of the experience, he received baptism, left the army and became a monk. People in the Czech republic associate the feast with the onset of winter and snow. There are a lot of proverbs in Czech, which feature predictions for the winter weather. According to the most popular saying, the first snowfall of the season can be expected on this day since Martin may arrive on his white horse. St. Martin´s celebrations are particularly popular with children, who create colourful handmade lanterns. After darkness falls, kids participate in lantern processions and sing songs. The candles in the lanterns flicker and the kid´s eyes are...
With few exceptions, Prague is not planning to limit Advent markets and Christmas decorations due to rising energy prices. Before the end of the year, the town hall signed a contract that would ensure that electricity would stay the same price. The different districts in Prague will not, for example, renounce to Christmas trees or other decorations. But some administrations will replace them with less expensive LEDs. Traditionally, the biggest markets will be held on Old Town Square. This year they will be dominated by a 25-meter tall spruce tree from Česká Kamenice in the Děčín region. The organisers of the market will light the 80-year-old spruce before the first Sunday of Advent on Saturday 26 November. “We have been using the most energy-saving LED bulbs for ten years, so there is no need to limit the lighting significantly,” said Hana Tietze, a spokeswoman for Taiko, which is in charge of the markets on Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, and Namesti Republiky. The situation is similar in Prague 3, where organizers will also choose more economic lighting and use led bulbs. The markets on Jiřího z Poděbrad Square will be on the same scale as before the covid pandemic, i.e. 12...
Prague welcomed 1.84 million tourists in the third quarter, around 800,000 more than a year ago. However, the number of arrivals in the metropolis has still not reached the pre-Covid level, with almost 2.3 million in the third quarter of 2019. The statistics were published today according to the Czech Statistical Office (CSO). Of the 1,844,332 tourists who have been accommodated in the capital from the beginning of July to the end of September, almost 1.45 million were foreigners and about 397,000 were domestic guests. The number of foreign tourists increased by 130 percent year-on-year. Guests from the Czech Republic, on the other hand, decreased by five percent. In total, tourists spent 4.26 million nights in the capital, up 1.9 million year-on-year. In the third quarter of the last year before Christmas 2019, the number reached 5.4 million nights. Foreign tourists spent 3.52 million nights in the metropolis in this year’s third quarter, up from 1.5 million a year ago. The number of overnight stays by guests from the Czech Republic fell from about 817,500 to 732,170 nights. Across the Czech Republic, 7.3 million guests stayed in hotels, guesthouses and campsites in the third quarter, up 11 percent year-on-year. Compared...
This Sunday, November 13th don’t miss out on the South American Brunch hosted by Gran Fierro. A month ago Chef Pablo surprised everybody with the Venezuelan Brunch and this time Chef Jordan will be in charge of bringing Brazilian delicacies to Prague. Gran Fierro is known as an Argentinean steakhouse, but it has been offering Latin American dishes since it started. So there are a few foods on the brunch menu this Sunday that you won’t find anywhere else such as the “Milho cozido na manteiga de garrafa” (corn with ghee butter). For more details and menu visit the event on Facebook Here’s what you can get: Welcome drink: “Caipirinha” – Cachaça cocktail Finger food: “Pão de queijo” – Baked tapioca cheese bread “Kibe” – Deep-fried beef croquettes and bulgur wheat “Romeu e Julieta” – Halloumi and guava slices “Coxinha” – Chicken and cheese croquettes “Tapioca Recheada” – Crepe type made of yuca hydrated yuca “Bolinha de queijo” – cheese croquettes Main Dish: “Feijoada” – Black bean stew brewed with a variety of selected smoked pork and beef meat. Rice, orange, yuca flour, and curly cabbage “Caldo verde” – Potato soup/cream with curly cabbage “Carne seca com aipim” – Dry...
Truth and love will overcome lies and hatred. Sound too corny? No, the words of the former first Czech president are truer than ever. Come to the cinema Aero on the eve of the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, czexperience the revolutionary drama HAVEL set in a time when fighting for freedom was the order of the day. On the 16th of November, as part of the “Some like it Czech” screening series, which aims to introduce Czech culture and history to expats living in Prague, you can attend a screening of the movie HAVEL (2020, watch the trailer). The latest movie by Czech director Slávek Horák will show you the breathtaking transformation of a timid playwright into a determined and fearless revolutionary and later a global icon. Set between 1968 and 1989 you can finally get to know Czechoslovakia under socialism with this movie drama based on real events. Brian Lennon, a charming man from L.A. who has one short film debut to his credit, will give you a fun introduction before the movie. In an entertaining way without any spoilers, you will discover why the year 1968 is so important for the Czechs. With Brian, you will finally...
Families, Prague residents, and tourists are cordially invited. In a wonderful place, The Mozart Hotel Prague, the socially engaged foundation Act for Others enchants again with a Christmas atmosphere and high-quality products to organize a Charity Advent Market on November 25. For this event, The Mozart Hotel, Bontonfilm joined forces with Act for Others, with united commitment they present international live music, craftsmanship, high-quality products and culinary on the first weekend of Advent. Families, Prague residents and tourists are cordially invited, for the youngest there is a fun children’s room with supervised crafts. The traditional market comes with a new location after the Palace of the Maltese and the Senate of the Czech Republic, the new cooperation partner Bontonfilm and the support of the charity organization Be Charity. As in previous years, all proceeds will be donated to charity for the benefit of the facilities in Neratov (Sdružení Neratov) for disabled children and adults. The aim of Act for Others is to support projects for the integration of people with disabilities in Neratov. The Prague-based foundation, founded by Baroness Melanie von Schilling and led by four other board members, is the organizer of this popular Charity Advent Market (which was...
Good news for John Wick fans! The spinoff movie, Ballerina, has finally started production this week in Prague. During Lionsgate’s investor call last week, CEO Jon Feltheimer shared that the film starring Ana de Armas (Knives Out, No Time to Die) would start production this week. We don’t have many details about the plot of Ballerina yet, other than it takes place in the John Wick universe and that de Armas’ character seeks revenge after someone kills her family. Len Wiseman (Underwood) is directing, and John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum and Army of the Dead screenwriter Shay Hatten has penned the script, although de Armas said in an interview earlier this year with Elle magazine that she worked to get Killing Eve writer Emerald Fennell to add touches to the story. Among other locations, Ballerina is set to shoot in Prague’s city center by the Hotel Opera at Těšnov and at the Masarykovo nádraží train station in the coming week. In addition to Prague, Ballerina will also shoot in other cities around the Czech capital. More filming locations will be known in the coming weeks; the action movie will shoot in the Czech Republic across the next three months, through February 5. Keanu Reeves’ involvement in the movie has not been previously confirmed, but...
The penny farthing bicycle has long since gone the way of the carrier pigeon and the coal-fired railroad train. Nevertheless, Czech devotees of these early bicycles gather from time to time to resurrect the spirit of the Victorian age, as they did last weekend in Prague. On November 16, 1880, the Czech Velocipedists’ Association was established in a brewery in Smíchov. The young men who founded it were particularly fond of the bicycle known as the “penny farthing”, on which the front wheel is enormous, while the rear wheel is much smaller. This bicycle, also known as an “ordinary” or a “high wheeler”, gets its name from the penny and farthing coins in the United Kingdom; a side view of this cycle looks vaguely like a penny pulling a farthing behind it. The Czech Velocipedists’ Association was only the second such organization in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the first in Bohemia. The first outing of the fledgling association was a day trip to Loděnice the residence of its chairman, Jindřich Cífka, on April 24, 1881. Many cyclists ranged far abroad; the longest trip that year was undertaken by Jan Kohout (a shareholder in the brewery in which the association...
Prague Airport has won the ninth gold medal in a row for its blossom honey, competing in the Czech Honey contest, held annually by the Czech Beekeepers Association. Once again, the airport honey samples received a 100% rating in parameters such as water content, sucrose, electrical conductivity, correctness of information on the labels, and the overall aesthetic impression of the honey packaging. Prague Airport has been submitting its honey samples to the competition since 2013. “Beekeeping was established at the airport in November 2011, primarily as a means of air quality biomonitoring, to assess the air transport impact on the quality of the environment. The collected honey and pollen samples are subjected to analyses by the accredited laboratory of the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague,” Soňa Hykyšová, Prague Airport Environment, Sustainability, and ESG Director, said. “Biomonitoring using bees is only a small part of the overall environmental monitoring, where the airport monitors about 40 parameters above the scope of legal requirements,” added Hykyšová. Since 2019, the airport has also been monitoring its bees using a system for electronic monitoring of bee colonies – ProBee. Using this system, we monitor the weight of the hives, the temperature, and the acoustic behavior...
A new mural has been unveiled in Prague to pay tribute to Ryszard Siwiec, a former Polish Home Army soldier who set himself on fire in protest of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia more than 54 years ago. The mural, which was created by local artists and unveiled on Friday, is on a street in Prague 3-Žižkov named after the Polish anti-communist protester and next to a monument honouring him, news outlets have reported. On the night of August 20, 1968, Soviet-led Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia to put a stop to liberal reforms. Less than three weeks later, Siwiec protested the move by dousing himself in paint thinner and setting himself ablaze during an official harvest festival in central Warsaw, where some 100,000 people had gathered. Before setting himself on fire on September 8, 1968—an idea he may have borrowed from monks protesting against the Vietnam War—the 59-year-old wrote his will and recorded an anti-communist manifesto which ended with the words: “Hear my cry, the cry … of a man who loved his own freedom and that of others more than anything else, more than his own life.” Ryszard Siwiec je nejlepším příkladem 🇨🇿-🇵🇱 solidarity a také příkladem nekompromisního vyjádření nesouhlasu s...
There will now be two locations for the PsiKrasa Dog Grooming Salon! The first is located in Andel and the new one is located at Vinohrady. “We are the partner of the Czech Club of owners and breeders of Black Russian Terriers and we are the only grooming salon in the Czech Republic, which has a specialization for this type of large breed. But we groom all breeds and all dogs no matter if they have a breed or not,” says the owner Oxana. PsiKrasa Dog Grooming Salon also does stripping for dogs, and starting in November a second salon location is opening so they can serve even more customers. If you look at their website it talks more in detail about the care they put into each dog and you are even able to see pictures of dogs they have groomed for reference. “It’s an amazing job, I’m very lucky. And I’m also lucky to have found a great groomer – Anna. She’s a Ukrainian refugee and came from Kharkiv with her dog-lady named Jasja. Our meeting was a big impulse to open the second salon,“ added Oxana. “I feel at home with them and at ease with...
A park of Christmas light installations recently opened at Žluté lázně in the Podoli district of Prague. You can admire 311 various sculptures created with 400 thousand light bulbs. The park was organized by Taiko, which has been organizing fairs, including Christmas fairs, in the center of Prague for many years. The park features sculptures of animals found in Bohemia – magpies, gulls, eagles, swans, deer, as well as various decorations with recognizable symbols of Prague. Typical Christmas motifs are also present: bells, light gates, stars, snowflakes, an angel and Christmas decorations. There is also an interactive installation in the park, accompanied by an excerpt from the symphonic poem Má vlast by Bedřich Smetana. There is also a special educational trail for children, with interesting facts and a quiz with valuable prizes. According to the organizers, very economical LED lights are used for the installations, which consume a total of 8 kWh. Thus, for one full day, the electricity costs do not exceed 200 crowns. “We offer visitors a beautiful Christmas stroll on the banks of the Vltava River in a breathtaking holiday atmosphere,” said Libor Votruba, managing director of Taiko. Tickets: adults pay 200 CZK and children 150 CZK....
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