During the first spring lockdown caused by the COVID19 pandemic, between 1/4 and 2/5/2020, we created a series of inspirational videos for kids and parents to motivate them to create their own ABCZ. One letter, one video each day. Watch with us and create your own ABCZ!
And there’s the Aero 50, a beautiful aerodynamic automobile nicknamed Arizona. It races with the wind…
Grandmother (babička) baked some beautiful buns (buchty) today. That’s what Budulínek told me, the disobedient boy who sat on a fox’s tail and was whisked off into the woods…
A man in a top hat (cylindr) bicycles along a winding track. Maybe it’s the genius Jára Cimrman on his way to Liptákov…
…Had enough of devils? Then go to the Bohemian Paradise (Český ráj) region, where they’re not allowed in. Well, that’s a devil of a coincidence! (Ale co čert nechtěl!) Isn’t tonight Walpurgis Night, when witches (čarodějnice) fly about on their broomsticks? By the way, what’s become of Čestmír, the flying boy?
…Antonín Dvořák only had to go as far as New York to feel homesick, the same as our most famous opera singer Ema Destinnová and the conductor (dirigent) Rafael Kubelík, who much as they enjoyed touring the world were always happiest at home.
At the frontiers of Europe thousands of people are waiting to be let in. Sometimes the queue is longer, sometimes shorter – but there’s always a queue. These emigrants and exiles want to be the new Europeans. They’re not coming to visit the EXPO world fair, though. They don’t have the energy, either physical or mental…
Lights, camera, action! Who’s that in the director’s chair telling everyone what to do? Our most famous film director, Miloš Forman. And behind the camera is the renowned Miroslav Ondříček, filming that long-haired guy singing and dancing on a table…
If you take a stroll in the winding lanes of Prague’s old Jewish Quarter, Josefov, you’ll soon find yourself outside the Gothic Old-New Synagogue, where legend has it that the Golem, a giant formed out of clay, is hidden in the loft…
Welcome to the famous Golden Tiger pub in Prague. They say: Hunger is the best cook (Hlad je nejlepší kuchař), so some special guests have gathered here to enjoy the roast goose (husa) with dumplings (houskový knedlík) and mushroom (houby) soup…
…And whose is that hand signing the human rights charter Charta 77? Whoever it is, I hope they’ll get to see their chata again…
…Who’s that approaching on a festively decorated horse? He looks like a king, but why has he got a rose in his mouth? What’s his name? Those jezinky are arguing whether it’s Jiří (the commonest Czech name), or Jan, or maybe Josef? Jiminy Cricket! (Ježkovy voči!) The King’s Ride (Jízda králů) has taken a wrong turning…
What’s that book? So many different pictures! A Cubist (kubismus) portrait of Jan Amos Comenius (Komenský) and a streetlamp in the same style; a camellia (kamélie) flower; a collage (koláž). Is it a school textbook? Or a chronicle (kronika)? …
…But the lion (lev) is missing! He’s usually given the hardest jobs – like going into battle with our heroic airmen (letci) and legionnaires (legionáři), who wore him on their badges. Maybe he’s gone to the spa (lázně) to chill out…
It’s a warm moonlit evening in May and we’re on our way to Moravia. President Masaryk speeds through the poppy (mák) fields on a famous motorcycle called Čechie. Behind him sits a beautiful woman, like someone from an Alfons Mucha poster…
…Nearby a game of football tennis (nohejbal) is in progress, the players all in their national (národní) kit. Instead of a net they’ve set up a line of furniture (nábytek) and tableware (nádobí) by the most famous Czech designers. Their best pieces, too! Aren’t you afraid for them? František Nebojsa certainly isn’t!
National disaster alert! Or is it just a stage performance – maybe in the Liberated Theatre (Osvobozené divadlo)? Otesánek has devoured all the Olomouc cheeses (olomoucké tvarůžky), not to mention the spa wafers (→ lázeňské oplatky) and Orion chocolate! And he’s still hungry…
…Look at those dogs, they’re up to all kinds of tricks (psí kusy). One is playing the piano, another is juggling with porcelain (porcelán) plates and performing a pantomime! See the Dog and Cat (pejsek a kočička) dancing a polka together?…
A robot picks redcurrants (rybíz) from a portrait of the Renaissance ruler Rudolf II. From the Rettigová recipe book it prepares a redcurrant relish in a Remoska. Radegast, watching from remote Radhošt’, roars with rage…
Three hundred and thirty-three silver fighters streaked over three hundred and thirty-three silver roofs. And rivers. Try saying this in Czech: Tři sta třicet tři stříbrných stříkaček stříkalo přes tři sta třicet tři stříbrných střech. A řek. It’s easy enough if you know how! It was the fertile river valleys of Bohemia, and the safe refuge afforded by its forests (among them perhaps the fabled Řáholec), that attracted our ancestors here and made them want to stay…
…Communism and all it represented now seemed like a surrealist joke. Banned literature, tapped out on typewriters….Even great poets like Jaroslav Seifert were published in samizdat. Only sport was uncensored. Sokol gymnastics displays were replaced by Spartiakiads, and the Scouts by the Red Pioneers…
The traveller trudges along the tramlines. After consulting her map of → chata settlements, she decides to follow the tourist trail to Toronto. Today she doesn’t feel like Terezín. On her head is what looks like an American cowboy hat – except that it was made by Tonak the famous Czech hat company. Judging by her backpack she must be a tramper! …
…So, for example, a window cleaner might be a historian who was only able to do research and write books while underground. A sculptor might shovel coal into a boiler furnace and a painter might paint rooms instead of paintings! Never mind any university education! …
The waterman (vodník) Vavřinec Velebný is driving home in his canvas Velorex from a Christmas (Vánoce) feast in the Vysočina Region. Things are marvellous everywhere, but at home in the Vltava River they’re the best. He’s crossed the Iron Mountains, but still has a way to go. He found a water pipe under the Christmas tree.
It’s as if the Czech alphabet were looking down its nose at the letter W. What’s the point of it? V and W are pronounced the same in Czech. But W knows what’s what. It knows it used to be all over the place in Czech. It also knows that without it, Waldes, Werich, Wichterle and Winton would never have met in the pages of this book…
… At the moment, a farmer (zemědělec) with a woollen hat (zmijovka) on a Zetor tractor is in the lead. He’s got a locomotive in tow named after Emil Zátopek, the famous runner. He’s also in the race, hot on its heels. There above them is Zeman’s Baron Munchausen on a cannonball. Where are we? In the Zlín Film Studios? …
Life without freedom is difficult. But even a free life has its perils. The communists managed to build an iron curtain in our minds. Out of fear: fear of the unknown, suspicion, envy, prejudice and intolerance of anything different. We have to cope with this curtain all our lives…