Public holiday in Czechia - Czech Statehood Day (September 28th)

[endless_sleeper]

Learning a foreign language always means learning about the culture it represents as well. It's our aim to introduce not only the Czech language to you, but also Czech culture. So let's start with some notes on today's public holiday.

September 28th is one of the public holidays in Czechia - it's called the Czech Statehood Day (Den české státnosti). It commemorates Saint Wenceslaus (svatý Václav), one of the most important figures in Czech history. A duke of Bohemia in the 10th century, he became the patron saint of the Czech lands after his murder on this day in 935.

You can read more about him on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslaus_I,_Duke_of_Bohemia

Svatý Václav is not commemorated by this day only. Almost every visitor to Czechia will encounter a mention of his name somewhere. He is portrayed on 20 Kč coins. Václav is the 12th most popular given name in Czechia. The most important square in Prague - Václavské náměstí (or colloquially Václavák) - is named after him. A big equestrian statue of Saint Wenceslas is located on this square right in front of the National Museum. The statue is a popular meeting place and is colloquially known as kůň ('the horse'). So you can ask your Czech friends to meet you pod koněm' ('under the horse').

Learners from English speaking countries may be familiar with the Christmas carol 'Good King Wenceslas', which is inspired by him.

But what does this day mean for the average Czech?

To be honest, not much. People have time off from work, schools are closed, most shops are closed too, the flags are flying - even buses and trams are decorated with little flags - and there are some official events, but not many. It's a religious holiday as well - there is a pilgrimage and a mass in Stará Boleslav, the town where he was murdered. But overall, the Czech Statehood Day is a bit overshadowed by October 28th - the most important public holiday - but more on that later.

It also means that we - the contributors - are taking a day off.

Just kidding. We are always working. ;)

[SuperLearner007]

Yeah no school today over here! Thursday, Friday plus the weekend!
Hurray!

[Woof.]

Děkuji!

[Woof.]

Wow, Thank you! I did not know any of this stuff! Very interesting!

[ally.x]

I vote for Czech, Czechia is tearing my ears. Also how did you figure that October 28th is the most important public holiday?

[nueby]

Sorry, Czech is an adjective unless you stick a determiner in front of it, but then it just designates a national of the country. No matter how you vote, "Czech" is not going to be the one-word name of the country in English, or at least accepted as such in this course. I know I could not stand "Česko" back in the day. Give it 25 years, then talk about torn ears. (Sorry, too lazy to unrhyme that one.)

[Christine_nl]

My Czech friends insist on me saying "Czech Republik".

[BRENIN_101]

you are learning the same languages as me Spanish and Czech

[ally.x]

Já vím, když jsem hlasovala proti Zemanovi, taky mi to nebylo nic platné. Když s někým mluvím anglicky používám Czech jako zkratku Czech Republic a spousta anglicky mluvících lidí to tak říká taky (alespoň ti kteří vědí, že už nejsme Československo). Je to naprosto přirozené, ale tak uvidíme za 25 let :-) S tím přídavným jménem moc nevím, anglicky mluvící vnímají Czech i jako Čeština (I learn Czech. Czech is difficult.) tudíš i jako podstatné jméno.

[nueby]

Máte pravdu, Czech je bez členu i podstatné jméno čeština. Což z něho ovšem taky neudělá označení pro Česko. Asi by to chtělo rigoróznější zdroj než "spousta anglicky mluvících lidí to tak říká taky". Přeci jen většina z nás "říká" všelijaké zhůvěřilosti, ale napsat je do diplomky nebo jimi něco oficiálně pojmenovat, to chce jinou úroveň péče. Naše pozice je přeci jen o něco podloženější:

In the absence of agreement on the use of a short form Czech Republic, the long form, has conventionally been used as the name of the country in all contexts. However, in May 2016 the Czech Government approved a short name for the country in each of the official languages of the United Nations and notified the UN accordingly for inclusion in the UNTERM database (United Nations Terminology Database) and the UNGEGN database (United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names). The short forms are as follows: Czechia in English, Tchéquie in French, Chequia in Spanish, Чехия in Russian, 捷克 in Chinese and التشيك in Arabic. Czechia is the English translation of Česko, the short name of the country in Czech (cf. Čechy, which means Bohemia). The position of the Czech Government is that use of the form Czechia is optional but recommended in informal contexts where it is not necessary to use the full political name, such as at sports events, in advertising and so on.

Zatím tedy Czechia vede nad Czech. Za těch 25 let mě případně přivolejte jako ducha, ať si o tom popovídáme. Jestli nám nešťastně zvolení prezidenti mezitím nezmrší úplně všechno tak "badly", že nebude o čem povídat.

ETA: Dal jsem si ten dovětek do Google Translate, jestli bude z jejich strany k pochopení, a nebyl, ale zato mě překlad nahlas rozesmál.

[ally.x]

V době, kdy naše vláda tohle odsouhlasila, jsem žila v zahraničí a hodně lidí se mě na to ptalo. Měli s celé věci dojem, že v mé zemi došlo k politickému převratu nebo co (např. že určitě budu potřebovat nový pas a podobné radosti, což je samozřejmě nesmysl a já jsem jim to taky vysvětlila). Asi navždy tyhle zmatené názory cizinců budu mít s názvem Czechia spojené (jako by nebylo dost na tom, že hodně lidí věří, že "Czechoslovakia is still alive"), a proto mi i vadí víc než by musel.

Jinak díky za citaci :-)

[Woof.]

He's a contributor to Czech-English.

[ally.x]

:-) That doesn't qualify him to say which public holiday is the most important. And who even says there should be one that is the most important one. They all have their importance, it's not like there is some rankings on this.

[JessicaYoung3]

it is the date of Czech independence (oct 28th) and you were right every single store was closed haha except a few restaurants.