Heritage

The Oklahoma Czech Festival Story

The Oklahoma Czech Festival had its beginning in October 1966, when the lodges of Yukon Czech Hall, WFLA Lodge #67 and Sokol Lodge Karel Havlicek, sponsored a festival to celebrate the City of Yukon’s 75th anniversary.  After the successful first festival, a group from both lodges under the leadership of John Kouba, Ralph Stejskal, and Hubert Smrcka decided to make the festival an annual event.  Oklahoma Czechs, Inc. was formed to administer the affairs of the festival.  The group decided to hold the festival annually in the city of Yukon, Oklahoma on the first Saturday of October.  Yukon has been officially proclaimed as the Czech Capital of Oklahoma.

The goal and purpose of the Oklahoma Czech Festival is the preservation and sharing of the old Czech customs so dear to the people of Czech descent.  These customs, including recipes, kroje, songs, and dances, have been handed down from generation to generation.  Today, Oklahoma Czechs, Inc. continues to strive to preserve the precious traditions our ancestors gave us.

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Czech Customs

Taken from Czech Reflections
By Willa Mae Cervenka

Holy Wednesday  Czech and Slovaks call the Wednesday of Holy Week, “Ugly Wednesday”.  There is superstition that anyone eating honey on this day will not be stung by serpents.  The church bells are muffled, their place being taken by great wooden rattles in the church towers.

Holy Thursday  In Czech Republic, Holy Thursday is called “Green Thursday”.  The hawthorn is supposed to weep on that day; according to tradition, it is the tree from which the crown of thorns was fashioned. Parents send their children to the brooks to bathe on Green Thursday; it is a cure for laziness.  At breakfast the Czechs and Slovaks eat honey and “Judas cakes, cakes twisted like rope.

Good Friday  Holy Friday is known as “Great Friday” in Czech Republic.  On that day anyone can look upon the sun without being blinded by its glare.  Moveover, all hidden treasures are revealed to those seeking them before sunrise.  An ancient ballad tells of a woman who went before sunrise of Great Friday to a mountainside.  The rocks opened and she beheld quantities of shining gold.  Hastily laying down her child, she filled her apron with gold and then ran home for a larger vessel to hold more treasure.  By the time she returned, the sun was up and her child was shut up in the mountain.  A year later she returned to the same spot before sunrise; the mountain opened and she found her child alive and well.

For Good Luck  In a new home the Czech people plant rosemary and oleander at the front door for good luck.

Czech Fortunes  In Czech Republic, fortunes are told after dinner on Christmas Eve.  Melted wax or lead is poured into water and the shapes they form are the signs that foretell the future.

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Anthem Lyrics

SLOVAK NATIONAL ANTHEM

y has been born.