Burning of the Witches
Burning of the Witches day is a weird tradition that we celebrate on April 30. Every year on this day people make a big fires and make an effigy of a witch and put it on top of the bonfire. As it gets dark the fire is lighted up and people watch the witch to get swallowed in the flames. That´s how we celebrate arrival of spring.
It´s a tradition that goes back to the pagan times. People used to believe that the bad spirits and magic were strong on April 30, and they believed that the Witches held their coven that day so they built big fires around their villages to keep the bad spirits away. Czechs used to believe that the power of witches would weaken as the weather got warmer. So they thought that if they made something that looked like a witch and burned it, they could finally get rid of the cold weather. These days we burn the witches as a punishment for keeping the winter for so long and celebrate the spring.
When I was little my dad usually took me to his home village where they had a huge huge fire and the whole village would go there and celebrated together while roasting sausages and drinking beer. I remember it was pretty fun to jump around the fire as a kid. In my teenage years I always went to look at our bonfire in my hometown with my friends. There always was a huge bonefire next to the river and hundreds of people gathered around the riverbanks and bridges to watch the fire. It was pretty cool event. Later they moved the fire elsewhere due to the safety factor and I´m not even sure where.
This was my first witches burning in Prague. Of course there´s lots of places and fires in Prague so I didn´t know where to go but as I live near the Ladronka Park, where they coincidentally organize the biggest Burning of the witches in Prague, I decided to go there.
We got there after 5pm and the place was crowded. Lots of food stands everywhere with very long queues. Kids dressed as a witches were running around. The bonefire was pretty small but I guess they won´t allow you to built a huge fire in the center of Prague. We were walking around and craving the delicious unhealthy food the stands were offering.
They set the bonfire on fire at 6.30pm. It was kinda unromantic with the police and firemen standing next to it.
When we had enough of looking into the fire we went to buy something to eat and wait for the concert that was supposed to start later. The Clou were performing. I haven´t heard of them much lately but I remember they were kinda successful few years back. They played their music video on MTV, which was pretty big deal here. The concert was quiet enjoyable. I liked the music. People were just chilling around.
This is the MTV song. I like it.
Click to viewInspite the bad prognosis the weather held up pretty well except for the late evening when it started raining and to get home in the over crowded bus with young, wet, drunken people was really a challenge. 10min in the bus felt like an hour.