Masopust (Czech: Carnival)
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From Epiphany to Ash Wednesday – The Feast of the Three Kings or Magi (January 6) marks the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of Shrove Tuesday, the only time of the year that remains unaffected by church liturgy. Ancient Roman culture influenced the civil and cultural customs of medieval Europe, and its calendar was also adopted. That is why the beginning of the new year was originally celebrated at the beginning of March.
Various celebrations, ceremonies and customs were also associated with it. After the New Year was moved to January 1, most rituals remained associated with the original period. During this time, many significant holidays associated with church ceremonies are not commemorated. At least they were not celebrated outside of churches and households of believers, the majority of society is actually aware of them only from 19th century literature (novels by Ignát Herrman, Popelka Biliánová, Božena Němcová, JK Tyl, Karolína Světlá and others).
The first holiday of the carnival season is the feast of the Three Kings, when water, chalk and salt are blessed in the church. These consecrated objects were originally used as protection against evil forces. The inscription K + M + B written in chalk on the door became a reminder of this ancient tradition, also associated with a tour of the village, carried out by a priest and altar boys.
On January 21, the Christian world venerates the memory of St. Agnes of Rome, a twelve-year-old virgin and martyr. A basilica was later built over her grave, in which 2 lambs, a black one and a white one, are blessed every year on her feast day. Their wool is used to weave the so-called pallia, which the Pope hands over to newly appointed archbishops as a badge of their office.
On the feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, popularly called Hromnice (February 2), candles, so-called hromničky, were lit in churches. During thunderstorms, housewives would put them on the table with bread and light them as protection against fire.
On the feast of St. Blaise (February 3), after the Holy Mass, the faithful were given the blessing of St. Blaise, which was supposed to protect against neck pain.
The feast of St. Dorothy (February 6) is associated with a folk parade and a play about the martyrdom and beheading of St. Dorothy, with which children went around the village. This custom has survived only in performances by folklore groups and at festivals.
Although Roman society influenced the cultural customs of Central Europe, it could not influence the weather. The period of lush carnivals in the Mediterranean was associated with spring and the beginning of seasonal agricultural work, while in Central Europe, winter still remained during Shrovetide, a period of vegetative rest. Thanks to this, there was more time for fun, meeting neighbors, going to parties, and gatherings where mysterious, scary stories and fairy tales were told. Dance parties, killings (butchering), bargaining and weddings were held. All of this had to take place by the end of Shrovetide, until Ash Wednesday, when the forty-day fast began.
The Shrovetide period is of different lengths each year. It is counted from the movable Easter holidays, when Ash Wednesday is determined by the given calculation, and thus the end of Shrovetide. It can be at the beginning of February, or even as late as March. It depends on the spring full moon.
During the carnival, various games were played, the most famous of which was probably the trial of Bacchus, the ancient god of harvest and wine (and drunkenness). After the trial, he was usually buried (thrown into cold water, buried in the snow, etc.). A remnant of old rituals are ceremonial dances - the dance with a log, the sabre dance (in Moravia, especially in the Slovak region), the stick dance, and the hemp dance. They were supposed to ensure prosperity and fertility. Nowadays, they are just a theater.
Other regional peculiarities and entertainments were observed, such as the old woman's mill, in which older women would pretend to be young girls. In the Nymburk region, girls and women would organize a splash party, where they would bake cakes and ride through the village the next day with masquerades and musicians. In the Chod region, the fairies would go around the old houses. In Boleslav, the typical carnival entertainment was the šedivek.
Carnival festivities culminated on Fat Thursday, before which there were slaughterings. On Fat Thursday, people had to eat and drink a lot to have enough for the whole year. No expense was spared during the entire carnival, not even in poorer families. In his time, Tomáš ze Štítné even reproached the Czechs "for eating too many donuts at that time".
The aim of the parades, scenes of various masquerades, into the form of which the present day was intertwined, was to obtain as much food and money as possible for the joint carnival entertainment through jokes, songs and dances.
In the Slovácko region, the sabre dance was and is still danced. Carolers dance it in front of every building in the village and earn merit. Similarly, they went around in Slovakia with a spit and in Silesia with a devil. Among the most interesting parades are the South Bohemian carol plays held in the Doudlebsk region. The more than century-old tradition, with roots reaching deep into the past, continued this year as well. It is just simpler, lacking magical elements. Modern times have required some further adjustments to the parade. Carolers in formal suits, belted with a wide sash in the colors of the tricolor, with hats on which 365 colorful paper flowers and juniper branches are attached, walk through the village and make a circle in front of each building, usually while singing the song Červená růžičko. They invite the landlord and housewife, all the household members, to Sunday fun. They usually ask for sausages, a piece of bacon, and nowadays more often money. They are given and have given alcohol, they are given doughnuts or pine cones, sometimes sandwiches. The carolers dance with the housewife and daughters and go to the next house. Sometimes they are invited inside for a snack. They turn a silent circle in front of the cross, the chapel, the Passion of the Lord and the house where someone has died since the last carnival.
There must be at least twelve carolers (like the apostles): Masopust, two hetmans, two mayors, two aldermen, two dance masters and bachelors and the ovary. Tradition dictates that the carolers should be single boys (previously they were recruits), Masopust and the ovary can be older and married and are the only ones in the carol dressed as masquerades (they wear clothes typical of their role). Each of the carolers has a badge of their rank: Masopust (Caperda, Mother) is armed with a straw flail with which he sets the wheel, the hetmans have pikes, the mayors have ferules, the dance masters have wreaths braided in red and blue, the aldermen have rifles, the bachelors have sticks decorated with streamers. The ovary (pond keeper) has a hen, or rather an imitation of a hen or rooster, attached to his cap. On a pole, with an axe attached on one side and a shovel on the other, he carries a bag-bag into which he puts everything he carols. He is the liveliest and most cheerful member of the carol, he howls loudly, he rummages around the yard, in the barn, in the chicken coop, he brings whatever he finds to the farmer and tries to sell it to him. Of course, the štámbrle are omnipresent. If they meet a car on the way, they pull it over and do not let it pass until it dances a circle, they make a deal with the driver or crew and in return they get a tip. Often the carolers are accompanied by masquerades. In Petříkov, unlike the neighboring village of Olešnice, where a women's carol also went every year, the women only participate in the preparations, knit hats, prepare and adjust insignia.
There used to be a lot of fun on the last Shrovetide Sunday. The dancing continued on Monday. A men's ball was held, to which they did not have free access. Each peasant threw his wife as high as possible during the dance, so that flax and hemp would grow as high as possible. The attributed magical properties and wishes have long since disappeared from consciousness. But the big Sunday dance party is still held today.
In Postřekov in the Chod region, a women's ball was held on Monday, intended for married women and housewives. In Olešnice in the Trhosvinen region, there was a wreath. The girl was ceremonially introduced by a caroler, danced with him, got married and paid for the tribute. This was done to all the single girls present. The climax of the carnival was the Tuesday entertainment, often a masquerade, when the funeral of Masopust took place at midnight. A bear, a bass, was also buried. It depended on regional customs. In Těšínov, now only part of the municipality of Petříkov, Masopust gave an annual midnight sermon. At midnight, the music started a funeral march in the Petříkov pub, and carolers entered the hall, carrying the "dead" Masopust on their upturned necks. Behind the necks walked the "priest" accompanied by the "churchman" and the "minister", other carolers and the Masopust's "widow". Locals and guests joined in with great lamentation and crying. The priest said goodbye to the deceased. His speech is repeated every year, the speech and litany for the deceased are often interspersed with vulgarisms, but in this specific situation the vulgarity of the words is not very noticeable. It is just a cheerful and witty speech. (You will only realize this if you read the texts calmly outside the context of the game.) Finally, the "priest" spoke directly to Masopust, who suddenly came to life and danced with his widow around the hall. They have a solo. In the past, the fun ended at midnight. Ash Wednesday, a strict forty-day fast, began. Now the fun continues even after midnight.
This year, Masopust ended on Tuesday, February 17. In modern times, carnival celebrations called končiny, fašanka, voračky, ostatky or bláznivé dny (crazy days) are usually moved to the last carnival weekend, when caroler processions – either traditional parade games and dances or just fancy dress parades – go around villages and towns. This is mainly for work reasons. Sporadically in some villages they still take a holiday and go around with a carol on Shrove Monday and Tuesday.
Shrove Tuesday is celebrated almost everywhere, masquerade parades go through towns and villages (in Prague's Žižkov, Břevnov, Vestec, Milevsko, where there is more than a century-old tradition of masquerade parades. The traditional Straw Carol in the Hlinecko region is well known, the masquerade parade and entertainment in Postřekov in the Chodsko region, and the Sabbat dances in Moravia.
Shrove Tuesday customs and traditions are organized in open-air museums, museums of folk buildings, and Shrove Tuesday ceremonies are performed at folklore festivals. But this is just a theater, not a living tradition organized by neighbors for neighbors.
The carnival is over, according to the church calendar, Lent begins. However, the life of contemporary society continues unaffected at the same pace. However, for the carolers themselves, the carnival festivities are not over yet. They collect the money they have collected, gifts (eggs, sausages, smoked meats, bacon), and from their earnings they organize after-dinner parties, to which they invite the women and girls who knitted their hats and helped with the costumes, the musicians and masquerades who went around the village with them. And they have fun. After-dinner parties can take place even several weeks after the carnival.
In Postřekov, the carolers gather for a joint lunch on Ash Wednesday. It was said that several dogs and cats were fattened for this occasion. Who knows if this is true.
Ferule - a magistrate's right, a symbol of the execution of the magistrate's office. An object carved from wood, shaped in the form of a royal scepter.
Hyjta – to go to a hyjta – to visit. Known mainly from the Chodsko region.
Pallium – a strip of cloth woven from sheep’s wool, the badge of the archbishop’s office, or cardinals.
Píka – a long infantry stabbing weapon (halberd).
Prahůdky – in the Chodsko region, girls dress up as masquerades, one as a man, the other as a woman, armed with rods, and walk around spinning wheels.<l
Spinning wheels – from Advent to Lent, girls would gather in a building and spin flax together.
Recruits – young men drafted into the army that year.
Šedivek – The girls hold a celebration with music and refreshments about 14 days before the end of Shrovetide, inviting young men to have fun and dance. It is also the end of the sleigh ride or doderek (pulling feathers)
Sources:
Jindrová, Marie, Annual customs in southern Bohemia (Shrovetide). Diploma thesis, Department of Ethnography and Folklore, Faculty of Arts, Prague, 1981
Langhammerová, Jiřina, Four seasons in folk tradition. Petrklíč, Prague, 2008
Vondruška Vlastimil, Church year and folk customs, Dona, České Budějovice, 1991 ze Štítného, Tomáš, Sunday and holiday speeches, ČAVU, Prague, 1929
Zíbrt Čeněk, Happy moments in the life of the Czech people, Vyšehrad, Prague 2006
Original Article in Czech:
<p>ČR: Od Tří králů do Popeleční středy – Svátkem Svatých Tří králů neboli mágů (6. leden) končí doba vánoční a začíná masopust, jediné obdo
