My Czech Republic Blog

Blog written by two Prague residents about life in the Czech Republic.

Prague Spring Celebrates Sixty Years

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The renowned Prague Spring International Music Festival (May 11 – June 3, 2006) is in its 60th season. It has been going on since 1946 and has attracted many performing artists, symphony orchestras and chamber music ensembles from around the world.

This year the different performances take place in a number of locations, such as the National Theatre, St. Vitus Cathedral, the Estates Theatre, Municipal House, Rudolfinum, the State Opera, Bertramka, several churches, etc.

Some tickets are still available. You can read more about the festival, see the program and find out where to buy tickets at festival.cz.

Have Some Catching Up to Do…

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It has been a long time without a post. A very long time. Let’s see what all has happened in the last three weeks. The Prague Spring Festival is in full swing, the Czech film Účastníci zájezdu (Holiday Makers) won an award at the Tribeca Film Festival, the Czech Republic ended up with a silver medal at the World Ice Hockey Championship, the most watched U.S. television series in the world premiers on Czech TV tonight, Montenegro split from Serbia… Oh, the last thing is not really Czech-related. Although it is, in a sense…

Stay tuned for more info as we try to catch up on the latest news.

Czechs Can Now Work in More EU Countries

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Four more European Union countries have opened up their labor markets to Czechs and citizens from other new EU member countries. As of May 1st, workers from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia can now work in Finland, Greece, Portugal, and Spain without restrictions. This is in addition to Ireland, Sweden, and the UK, which never had any restrictions.

Read more about it on the BBC News website.

Happy May, With or Without the Communists

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Here comes May, my favorite month of the year. Trees and flowers are blooming, the smell of clean, fresh, bright green grass fills the air, the birds sing in the warm sun and the days are on their way to their June endlessness.

Too bad my favorite month of the year always starts with the communist celebrations of První máj. I remember them well from my school years. All of us kids, our parents, our aunts and uncles, their friends and their friends’ friends, the whole entire population had to stop their lives and “voluntarily” and “gleefully” go take part in the staged communist parades to carry propaganda banners and wave silly little flags in the celebration of the wonders of life in socialism.

The communist regime plagued Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1989. The damage it left behind consisted of 205 486 wrongful convictions, 248 political executions, 4500 prison deaths, 327 border killings and 170 938 emigrations. I find it absurd that 17 years after the fall of the totalitarian regime in this country, the communist party ranks number three in popularity (and therefore power) and thousands continue to gather at the annual celebrations on May First. Can’t you people at least move your parties to February and leave this day to Mácha?