Prague Valentine’s Day

On the first day of May, everybody in Prague is celebrating the lovers day. For a long, long time, this date is known for couples, kissing under the tree in bloom. All over the world, people think that there is only one day in the year for lovers, but the Czech (especially our poet Karel Hynek Macha, who wrote „May“ in the 19th century) are celebrating this day just like all the Americans do on Valentine’s day.

One of the places, where young couples always go on the 1st of May is Petrin Hill, located in Prague. There is an watchtower (with broadcaster) and a lot of parks with lovely little places under the trees. Walking on the Charles Bridge or on the embankment of Vltava could be really nice, but if you are in love and you want to celebrate the „Prague Valentine’s day,“ you really need to visit Petrin.

And if you are not in love, but you still want to see something interesting, you should also go to Petrin. In the basement of the watchtower is a museum of Jara da Cimrman, a Czech genius, who has never been famous, who „lived“ at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. In fact, he is a fictional character, that was created by Zdenek Sverak and Ladislav Smoljak, two of our finests artists. They wrote fourteen theatrical plays (which they present as Jara Cimrman’s work) and are still enjoying great success with it. It is a part of traditional Czech culture, but one problem is, that it is not easily translated to other languages, so only Czechs would probably find it funny :-). The museum is open to public six days a week, the entry is free of charge.