The famous "Good King" Wenceslas is big throughout the Czech Republic. There are many legends about him--essentially, he is revered in Czech history as one of their best kings (as I understand it, he was technically a Duke and not a king!). The most famous legend is that when the Czech Republic is at its darkest hour, St. Wenceslas will return to save his people (the main version is that the statue of him in Prague will come to life, I think, but I gather there are variations). I think some people question how bad it's going to get, because the Czech Republic saw many dark days in the Twentieth Century and he never moved.
Given his prominence in Czech culture, it is not surprising that St. Wenceslas Day is a national holiday! In particular, it is celebrated with the St. Wenceslas Festival in the small town of Cesky Krumlov…so our pictures this month come from there. Cesky Krumlov was a thriving medieval/Renaissance era town which largely shut down by the 20th century (history buffs should note that it is in the Sudetenland. I could go on about the impact this had, and the ethnic cleansing that occurred periodically depending on who had control of the area, but I’ll spare you all the details!). When the Iron Curtain was pulled back, there was a realization that the town had been almost perfectly preserved and just needed a good cleaning to reveal original structures, a fabulous castle, and more!
We arrived at the end of Day 1 of the festival, which was probably the biggest day (I had tried to research this, but there was NO information online, so we sadly missed some stuff). As we were walking around getting oriented we looked up and noticed a hot air balloon. A few minutes later, we noticed another…and another…turns out some kind of balloon launch was part of the festival! Not knowing this, we weren’t well positioned for pictures, and started scrambling for a good vantage point:
That was by far the best shot--managed to get a balloon AND the castle tower! This shot was the primary inspiration for this month’s colour. There was also a touch of influence from all the dramatic rooftop views available around Krumlov--it seemed that every time we turned a corner, there was yet another fabulous vista. Here’s one:
So, everything felt dry when I went to check on it this morning, which means that local folks will receive their fibre and yarn tonight at the Adjudicated Show (those who can’t make it, let me know what you’d like me to do). Mail orders will hit the post office later today! Enjoy. :-)
Oh, one other thing--the base yarn & fibre have a LOT in common this month. They still don’t look identical, of course, but they did take the dye a bit more similarly than they sometimes do!
Comments