Jul 17 2008
Czech culture
Czech culture curiosities
The Czech Republic is situated at the crossroads of Central Europe, and this inspirational nation enjoys a prosperous and stable community that reveals a broad spectrum of cultural, political and religious influences. Such a number of influences have created a rich Czech culture that has contributed to every aspects of modern day Czech life.
Generally, Czech people are quiet, polite and reserved – except when they hit the pub. Also Czechs value displays of modesty over showy self-confidence. Specially Prague hotels make city really attractive for tourists.
But a good sense of humor is highly appreciated in the Czech Republic, and Czechs are peaceful and rarely confrontational or aggressive.
Czechs are private, formal and reserved people until they get to know you. However once you start a personal relationship Czech people open up a little bit, but you won’t see them overly emotional. Czechs are polite but sometimes they move to a first-name basis with people outside their very close friends or extended family. Czechs usually don’t start to talk to people whom they do not know when they ride the train or walk along the street.
Family ties are much closer and more deeply rooted in Czech Republic than in other countries as the family unit is the central point of the Czech social structure. Despite being a hardworking nation, the work ethic in the Czech Republic may not be as strong as in other cultures as their highest priority is essentially an obligation to the family.
How do usually Czech people spend their day? For Czechs day starts quite early, and that’s why shops open at 7am, but also they go to bed early and everything shuts early too. The Czech people like to watch TV and movies at home, and football and hockey is very popular. Those who live in the cities mostly in Prague like to have cultural evenings seeing ballets, operas and music shows.
Czechs like to celebrate holidays. Czechs especially from Prague probably are one of the most secular nations in Europe, but they do exceptions for Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter, when they carefully observe traditions. Besides these big holidays, there are other state holidays in Czech Republic. And what is the most interesting is that Czech people not only celebrate their birthday, but also their name day. They have national custom of choosing their child’s name from a list of 400 first names. That’s why any day all year round there are one or two names connected with it. They have tradtion of sending gifts or cards to people on their name day.
If to speak about Czech culture it’s impossible not to mention about beer. The Czech people are drinking beer for many centuries. Ideal agricultural conditions for growing hops make the secret of Czech beer production, the first evidence of export dates back to 903 while and chronicles establish their cultivation in Bohemia as early as 859 A.D. Bohemian hops were valued so high that King Wenceslas had to order the death penalty for anyone caught exporting the cuttings, from which new plants could be grown. The foundation charter for the Vysehrad church, dating from 1088 first mentioned of brewing in the Czech territories. The first Czech king, Vratislav II, decreed in this document, that his estates should pay a hop tithe to the church. Famous microbrewery U Fleku situated in Prague has been in operation since 1499 and is still going strong