Happy 'Witches' Day & Independance day BAT.

[6ULDV8]

Yup..

In Prague over the next few days there are two days of interest...

Witches day & Independance day.

Hope Bat enojoys...

[Skylace]

That's interesting.

[6ULDV8]

I only know this as the wife & mother-in-law are in Prauge this week & BAT was picking them up at the airport...

[Skylace]

[IRiSHMaFIA]

Maybe you can ask her what Witches Day is all about. That sounds rather intriguing.

Cool Bat was able to pick your wife and mother in-law up Hopefully they'll come home with some pics of the trip and you can post them up.

[6ULDV8]

Wife traveled light & only has her media player (30 gigs of music & movies... ohh & 3 series of QI)

Mother in law has a camera but she's a naff when it comes to shots
Maybe I can edit her fingers out the pics...

A quick google of witches day prague will tell you all about the celebrations...

I had asked BAT months ago if his 'taxi service' was available... hope all was smooth, have yet to hear from anybody in Prague yet.

[faceless]

he'll probably be taking them on a special tour of all the Guinness shops...

It's a great city and probably one of the safest I've ever been in. I'm not surprised about the Witches Day as they have a strong tradition of the gnomes and fairies etc.

[6ULDV8]

Having a hell of a time trying to reach the hotel room...
or get past the front desk for that matter.


Earlier when I called the front desk I was able to get the room, however they were not there...
Now, for the past 30 min.s I call & am constantly being 'hung up on' by a guy on the front desk....

It's getting a bit frustrating... emailing the said hotel just gets bounced back...

I ended up sending an email to their sister hotel in Prague & one to their flagship & CEO in London with a letter of disgust & complaint.
(great thing google search, find all sorts of peoples wmail addresses & numbers when you know how)

[eefanincan]

I'd never heard of witches day...... I'll have to google that as you suggested and check it out. We've not got anything like that here. Hallowe'en is a close as it gets, I think.

[6ULDV8]

We have a Sea Witch festival here at the beach... but it's a tad dif' to the thing in prague.

[Bat]

Fuck sake, I missed this post completely until today.

"Independence Day"?. No, if you are referring to May the 8th. It is the day the 2nd world war finished in Czechoslovakia (as it was then). Independence from the Germans and straight into Communism.....hmmmmmmm. Anyway.....

Witches day is the 30th of April. I don't know much about it but here's a wee history of it................Burning of the witches

It is connected to St. Philip and Jacob´s Day and also Valpruza´s Night from the 30th of April to the 1st of May, which is supposedly one of the magical nights when evil forces have greater power that at other times. At midnight before St. Phillip and Jacob´s Day, when evil spirits had the power to harm people, abundant treasures could be found. In order to protect themselves from the spirits, the searchers had to have on them a flower from a fern, a blessed chalk, a wafer and other objects. People believed that masses of witches were flying in the air, and came swooping down on the Sabbath. This is where the name burning of the witches comes from. Before this Sabbath the witches coated themselves in magic creams, which enabled them to fly. Fires were lit on high ground as protection against the witches. These fires have an ancient origin in some places. As time went by these fires turned into the burning of the witches, when young people set fire to brooms and through them into the air, supposedly so that the witches flying on their broomsticks up above would see them.