Beltane – festival of Celtic culture in the medieval village Řepora

Return to the past you can also enjoy in Prague, near metro station Stodůlky. You can see not only a replica of a medieval village from the 14th century, but authentic rural life of the time.

The Celtic festival called Beltane takes place on 30th April. It celebrates the coming of spring and heat, nativity and people are preparing for works on the field after winter. This feast is linked to the god of Belene and a fire. Beltane translated means glittering fire or Belene´s fire. Large fire was sparking and it symbolically cleared people and animals of ills and impure thoughts, which accumulated in the dark winter.
In this holiday our ancestors enjoyed and celebrated round ritual fires all night. This tradition, which persists as a burning of witches to this day has a lot of variants.

In a beautiful natural protected area between Prague - Stodůlky and Prague - Řeporyje you can visit an open-air museum Řepora. It presents to the public Czech folk architecture from the High Middle Ages in the form of replicas of buildings constructed using traditional materials. Around a central square surrounded partly by water and stockade fortifications there is a farm, houses and farm buildings, a church, a covered market, a well, a sacred tree, a pillory and a gallows hill.

This year's program will include demonstrations of crafts such as flour milling and baking cakes, coinage, metalwork, exhibition of weapons and fencing, weaving, pottery, a show of a small feast, competitions and a quiz for prizes, etc. A learning on each craft will be ready there. Visitors can try juggling and face painting. The main star of this year is Italian band Folkstone playing medieval folk-metal.

Date of event: April 30 – May 1, 2010.