Day of the Witches

Yesterday was the Day of the Witches in the Czech Republic. It is a day to celebrate the coming of spring, the greening of the land, the purging of evil forces and the youthful quickening of spring love. Of course we would have had no idea if it wasn't for our friends. Kirsty and Radek invited us to go out to Roztoky with them to go to a village celebration. Since we don't have a car we took the bus out to the village and met Kirsty, Radek and Kiera in the village. Of course we could have gone the Czech way - no car seats- but I'm not willing to do that. The bus ride only take about 20 minutes so it is an easy trip. It runs up along the river so it is a pretty drive. To get up into Roztoky the bus turns away from the river and winds pretty steeply uphill. On the way into the village we came across another field of Rape flower like we had seen on our trip to Munich. It is amazing to me that there can be this farm land 10 mins from our apartment. This field is of rapeseed flower. The rapeseed is used to make canola oil.

When we got off the bus we weren't sure where to go so I called Kirsty and Radek told us to walk in the direction of the sun. He was right. We quickly saw the playground and balloons. We headed up to the area and waited for our friends. As we were standing there I couldn't believe how much the celebration just looked like a family gathering. It could have been a family reunion. I guess that is part of the beauty of village life. Once our friends arrived we went in to see what was happening. The kids really enjoyed watching other kids make bubbles. Kiera and Radek gave it a try while Sofia and Ali tried to catch the bubbles. The kids also enjoyed going down a slide and using chalk to draw on the ground. It was all very basic and not like a carnival you would see in the US. Again, it just makes me realize that the basics are just as much fun and they don't cost and arm and a leg. The pinnacle of the night was the bonfire. The bonfire had a witch on a stick over the bonfire. Sofia was a little concerned that they were going to be burning a witch but after we told her it was pretend she seemed ok with it. By the time they lit the bonfire it had turned quite chilly and Sofia enjoyed the heat of the fire. We asked the girls what their favorite part of the evening was and Sofia likes the witches the best (there were people dressed up like witches) and Ali liked the fire the best.