Hody (South Moravia)
Encyclopedia
South Moravian Region
South Moravian Region is an administrative unit of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia, with exception of Jobova Lhota, that belongs to Bohemia. Its capital is Brno the 2nd largest city of the Czech Republic. The region is famous for its wine...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. The festivity is held from May to November in almost all villages and towns of Moravia. The time of the celebration differs - each village has a church building consecrated to a Saint patron, and the date of the saint's day is also the date for celebration of Hody.
The celebration usually starts at Friday and lasts whole weekend. In the centre of the event is a maypole
Maypole
A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, particularly on May Day, or Pentecost although in some countries it is instead erected at Midsummer...
(in Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
: Mája) manually erected by the men of a village. The maypole is often more than 30 meters tall, connected from two or three spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
trees. It is erected with the help of ladders and crowbars. The maypole stands in the centre of a dancing place (in Czech: plac). People are dancing and singing around with the accompaniment of the brass music called Dechovka.
The main organizer and arranger of Hody is a selected young boy called první stárek (the first stárek). He, together with a group of young friends also called stáreks (Czech plural: stárci), is responsible for organization and calm course of the celebration. Each stárek also has a girl partner, usually called starka or stárka. The boys and girls wears a traditional folk costume, which differs widely from region to region.
At the beginning of Hody, a mayor of the village or town should pass symbolically the rule over the village to the first stárek.