Artist: Karel Svolinsky
Saint Dorothy Processions in Czechia (Feast Day February 6)
(Translated with google translate)
A pure and simple folk legend that has the charm of a picture painted on glass with a fervent hand and a pious mind...
Saint Dorota lived a pious life. She walked neatly and cleanly, because she was a saint.
She once walked through the king's court,
and there the king himself met her.
Do you want, Dorothy, do you want to be mine?
The whole world wants to serve you.
My lord the king, I will not,
I have promised to another.
I have promised to another,
to Christ the Lord himself.
The king was angry with her
and had Dorothy tortured,
The longer she was tortured,
the more beautiful she became.
The king was angry with her
and had Dorota beheaded.
Dorota has already been beheaded,
her soul taken to heaven.
Bring her fruit from the heavenly Father.
Bring her lilies from the Virgin Mary.
The feast of St. Dorothy falls on February 6th, when melting snow and the sun peeking out from darkening clouds herald the arrival of spring.
An almost forgotten custom is the so-called "dating with Dorothy", which was practiced among the Czech people around February 6, when this saint has her feast day. Saint Dorothy lived in the 4th century in the city of Caesarea in present-day Turkey, and there is a legend associated with her that the governor Africius fell in love with her. However, she rejected him, so he first had her tortured and finally beheaded for being a Christian. On the way to her execution, it was in winter, she was looking forward to the beautiful flowers and fruit that grow in God's paradise. However, they were met by an official named Theophilus, who began to mock her, saying that if she sent him the flowers, he would also believe in Jesus Christ. However, something interesting happened. Suddenly, an angelic child appeared to them and gave them a basket full of flowers and fruit. This convinced Theophilus so much that he also began to believe in Christ, for which he was also executed.
The feast of St. Dorothy was accompanied in towns and villages by plays of various sizes, from simple formations (small Dorothy plays) to larger productions (large Dorothy plays). So during the feast of St. Dorothy, children and young people would go from house to house and act a play about the martyrdom of St. Dorothy for the people in them. For which they would receive a reward, first in the form of food and later in money. Small tour plays (they were called going with Dorothy) are based on a song legend from the 14th century, which also lived in shopkeepers' prints. The carolers recited the song, or its local variant, in chorus or divided up individual passages as acting parts. The actors in a narrow and wider ensemble, the king, Theophilus, Dorothy, the executioner, the footman, the angel, sometimes the devil and other characters, performed the scene in houses and in pubs and as an acting group they would even visit more distant villages. It was always played by poor children from the workers' colony. The game was played by poor children under the age of fourteen. They carried a money box with them, into which they collected money, and then divided the money. It was played in the main section of the wooden cottage, by the door.
Source: JK Hraše – Czech People Vol. 9, No. 3 (1900), LANGHAMMEROVÁ, J., The Four Seasons in Folk Tradition
Saint Dorothy weather lore:
When the sun shines on Dorothy, the chickens will lay a lot of eggs.
If there are icicles on Dorothy the cows will produce much milk.
If Dorothy day is nasty, there will be a good potato harvest.
Modern Saint Dorothy play:
Source
@slavicafire , @littlelinden you probably don’t remember, but you helped me figure out this folk custom when you identified it in the stamp above when I posted it with questions in 2023. Thank you again.
