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Bookmark & shareThe year begins with a festive New Year's Eve celebration, followed by holidays like Three King's Day (6 January) and the Anniversary of Jan Palach's death (19 January), which honours the memory of a Charles University student who burned himself to death in protest of the 1969 Soviet occupation.
Easter Monday, which falls in either March or April, is a classic rite of spring: Czech men of all ages swat at their favourite women with willow swatches, while the ladies respond with gifts of hand painted eggs, after which everyone parties.
Labour Day (1 May) is a communist leftover that coincides with the much older Majales, a spring festival dating back at least two centuries. Majales was banned by Nazis and communists, revived during the 'Prague Spring', subsequently squelched by Soviets and reincarnated in 1997. Majales' bands, dancers, floats, costumes, beer and sausage have since returned with a vengeance.
Liberation Day was celebrated 9 May (the day in 1945 that the Red Army marched into Prague) under the communist government, but in recent years you've had to get there by 8 May (the day Prague liberated itself) to enjoy the festivities.
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