Anyone who loves to celebrate Birthdays will love this post. More reasons to celebrate not just your birthday! Name day in Czechia is like, a second birthday. The difference between the Czech celebration and the USA celebration is big. A family gets together to eat good food, give small presents. Growing up, close family, aunts, and cousins would get together at home. There were no “team parties” for the whole class and such. It does look different now, and people are more celebrating with lavish parties and lots of people.
In this post, I will cover:
- Where does the name day started?
- Why some days are not connected to a name?
- Modern name days:
- What if I cannot find my name?
- National Holidays:
- Why is name “Petr” twice in the calendar?
- What is Statehood day?
- Day of Dead
- Adam & Eva on Christmas day?
- Are we the only ones?
- Would you like to learn more about Czech Republic?
Note: the red holiday in the calendar are national holidays, and people are off work and school.
Where does the name day started?
Let’s travel into the past:
The celebration of the name day “namesakes” has its origins in the Catholic tradition: Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox countries in general.
The custom originated with the Christian calendar of saints: believers named after a saint would celebrate that saint’s feast day or the day of a saint’s death. However, name-day celebrations no longer connect to Christian traditions in many countries.
Why some days are not connected to a name?
Some days do not contain a specific name. For example, on January 6th, Three Kings are mentioned instead of Kaspar, Melichar, Baltazar.
Due to national holidays, names were omitted in the liturgical calendar for important days like Good Friday in the past.
February 29th, when Horymír celebrates his name, is also special. Unfortunately, he celebrates only once every four years.
Modern name days:
Name day celebrations are free from Catholic origin and become only a holiday of the given name. It is very different from the old Catholic calendar, and each name appears only once. The calendar has also been extended by new, modern, and rare names in the last couple of years.
Since there are more names in modern days, people using as rare or taken from different countries, you can find, that some days have two names.
When I was growing up, doubling names didn’t exist. There was one name for each day most of the time. Sometimes, a female and male name can sound similar, and you can see them as two names with just different spelling in one day.
What if I cannot find my name?
It became very popular to name kids with foreign names after communism was gone and the borders opened. Not all names can be listed in the calendar now, so how to find out when to celebrate a name not listed in the calendar arises.
Another guide can be the liturgical calendar. If neither method leads to the goal, it is still possible to look into the calendar of one of the neighboring states to see if the name you are looking for does appear there.
If you cannot find your name anywhere, choose a day and stick to that day.
National Holidays:
On days we have National Holiday, the calendar doesn’t have an individual’s name but a Holiday name. Those days are very welcome among Czech people as that means no work or school is happening on those days. But again, there are expectations as well.
Sometimes, National Holiday is attached to a name. It is because the name was in the calendar first.
For example, November 17th happened in 1989 when people went to Wenceslas square and started “The Velvet Revolution.”
Pankrác, Servác, Bonifác and Žofie
Pankrác, Servác, Bonifác, and Žofie are not Holiday days, but I thought they come with interesting “Fun Fact.” The Czech Republic has similar weather as New York, in my opinion. For gardeners would be planting zone 6 and 7. So when our spring comes early, we do not believe it till “three frozen men” have passed.
Yes, those three men are Pankrác, Servác and Bonifác. Žofie is extra, and we say “Žofie noci upije” which means she will drink the dark night away and add more daylight.
Why is name “Petr” twice in the calendar?
I know I said not one name can appear twice in the calendar. There is one name with an exception, and we celebrate it twice in one year. The name is “Petr” and the second time is “Petr and Pavel.”
My brother is Petr, and no, he never gets a celebration twice, each family picks which day they will get the celebration, and that’s how it is (should be) forever.
The throne of St. Peter on February 22
The church commemorates the feast of St. Peter, the first among the apostles, the first bishop of Rome, and the first pope. His cathedral is still preserved in Rome and forms part of the altar in the Vatican BasiliChurche original cathedral, the throne of the Apostle Peter of the Vatican Basilica, was at the request of Pope Alexander VII. (1655–1667) included in the architecture of the altar at the end of the basilica and placed in a bronze box, supported by statues of four teachers of the church – Ambrose, Augustine, Athanasius, and John Chrysostom.
Saints Peter and Paul Luca Giordano 1660 on June 29
Jesus named St. Petr, Petr because this name means rock in Greek. Jesus named him that way because he was supposed to become a rock and be a church where the church would be built. That is why he became the first of the twelve apostles after Christ’s death. He performed miracles on behalf of Christ until his death, sometime around 64 AD.
As a Roman citizen, St. Paul was originally an enemy of Christianity and one of the greatest persecutors of Christians in Jerusalem. Still, on his way to Damascus, Christ appeared to him, and Paul converted to the Christian faith. He was the first missionary of the church to spread the gospel in Asia and Europe. St. Paul needed help with the snake bite. According to legend, he was bitten by a viper without harming or injuring him in any way.
What is Statehood day?
St. Wenceslas Day is on September 28th, and we honor this day by remembering and learning about its history.
Wenceslas was born in 907 and was the son of the Duke of Bohemia. He was a big supporter of a church. He also aimed to unify Bohemia and make peace with Germany.
September 28th, 935 (or 929, according to some historians), Wenceslas was attacked by Boleslav (brother) on his way to the mass. Supporters of his brother murdered him.
Although the feast day of the Czech patron is an important day for Czech Roman Catholics, St. Wenceslas Day only became a national holiday in the year 2000 – “the Day of Czech Statehood” – upon the initiative of the Christian Democratic Party.
As a footnote, and a warning against fratricide, Boleslav founded the independent Czech state, yet his martyred brother has the Day of Czech Statehood celebrated on his feast day.
Day of Dead
Also known as “All Soul’s Day” (Dušičky) in exact translation from the Czech language. (November 2nd)
Czech people walk to cemeteries to place flowers and light tea candles at their relatives’ graves.
When a person dies, the soul has not been rid of venial sins yet. The souls are awarded the vision of God in Heaven when people remember their loved ones. It is a way to reflect on loved ones who have passed away.
Both believers and atheists celebrate this holiday.
Dy of death is not National Holiday, but it is worth mentioning.
Adam & Eva on Christmas day?
Adam and Eva do share a day on Christmas Eve, December 24th. Throughout the history of Christianity, the Old Testament has been denigrated in various ways. Even Adam and Eva are not saints, we celebrate their death on the 24th, and Christ enters the New Testament and the new faith on the 25th.
Are we the only ones?
The Czech Republic is not the only country in Europe to celebrate name days. There are 18 countries, which I found, to celebrate name day, but could be more.
Would you like to learn more about Czech Republic?
Are you planning a trip to the Czech Republic? Are you a bit overwhelmed about what place to visit and see? I know there is so much to see and not just in Prague! The whole country is full of beautiful Gems. Here are a couple of my blog posts to help you plan some day trips.
- The perfect day trip – Prague – In this blog post, you can plan an entire day trip for visiting Prague Castle and Lesser Town. I put places together which will help you to stay in one area and not to lose time by traveling from place to place.
- Romantic day trip to Prague – On this Day Trip, I follow the previous post but move to the Old town square and areas around.
- Lovely day trip – Kutna Hora – Kutna Hora is a favorite place for tourists to visit. You should definitely put it on your bucket list.
More traditions and customs in Czech Republic?
- Czech Easter: Masopust – Is Easter in Czech Republic same, as Easter in USA?
- Czech Easter: “Pomlázka” – Some of the Czech traditions are quite specific. Partly they originate in the ancient Spring festivities, partly in the Christian remembrance of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “Pomlazka” “- Easter Whip”
Enjoy the city and the whole country!!!!
Until next time…!
DOBROU CHUT!
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