the decorated tree is a symbol of traditional celebration, which takes about 4 days and every village has it in other term. Under this tree we are dancing, singing, having fun... Boys must look about it during celebration, because boys from another village can come and cut it down. And this is a big shame!

There were two types of traditional costumes - for celebrations and for everyday using. The costumes for every day were common abou 50 and more years ago, now wear it only old women. Costumes for celebrations are very expensive. Whole costume can cost as much as new motorbike! So every family look about it very carefully. Every part of costume is kepr for about 30 years looking as new. New parts are bought separated during years. It is difficult to dress up this costumes, people can not do it themselves. There are old women helping them, they need years of experiences. Whith their help it takes more than hour, especially for girls.

Boys are dancing specific south moravian dance, which consist of various jumps and steps. It is traditionally only for boys. Few hudreds years ago boys danced it as a protest when they had to join the army. Every boy has his own style.

For comparison I send photos from my village - Brumovice - which is only 4 km far from Kobyli, but the costumes are different. Every village has own costume.

On the hats, boys wear, are hundreds of small beads and it has about 2 kilograms, so it is really heavy to wear all day. Married men are not allowed to wear the feathers from cock tail.

Sports(wo)men: Is the winner the same as hero?

Last time (25th April) we were discussing "cultures", especially Geert Hofstede´s theory of them, his definition and five main indices which determine every culture. Janice reminded the circle diagram. That is how we got to the HERO /HEROIN question.
While talking about national heroes, I´d rather say personalities considered as heroes, Nicolas mentioned that in France succesful sportsmen are often admired as heroes, at least within certain group of people. In our country (Czech republic and I dare say even in Slovakia) it´s the same. Apparently there are some who believe Milan Baros (football player) or Roman Sebrle (athlete who compete in decathlon) are national heroes. In 1998 when our ice-hockey team won gold medal in Olympics many people felt real enthusiasm. I remember newspaper and TV was full of it. But I´m not sure if there would have been a crowd in the airport welcoming the team, if they had lost. Well, even on third place, theys would still have remained good players.
This year Katerina Neumannova (won world championship in cross-country skiing) was awarded by President of Czech republic. I´m not sure if she even appeared on ceremonial. If she had came, she would be standing next to czech pilots from RAF, inventors, artists, poeple who saved someone´s life...
For me this worshipping of sports(wo)men is curoius and I don´t understand why people do that.
I´d like to know your opinion. Do you think your top players are real heroes? What do they bring to you or your national culture?

Martina

boys dressed in folklore clothes singing Moravian songs

a procession of costumed youth

a girl dressed in typical clothes with a collar - the village Kobyli