Mailbox
This week's Mailbox is devoted to questions on the holidays of Jan Hus and Cyril and Methodius. Listeners quoted: Sanjit Gao, Penny Roland, Cyril Klusak, Nayomi Kenta.
It's a special weekend as both Saturday and Sunday fall on national holidays, here in the Czech Republic. July 5 is dedicated to Saints Cyril and Methodius, while the 6th commemorates Jan Hus.
And since we've received numerous letters and e-mails in the past few months from listeners asking about these great religious personalities, we decided to devote this week's Mailbox to answer some of your questions about them and the holidays.
Many of you have written in to ask questions similar to this one sent to us from India by Sanjit Gao who comes from Mumbai:
"You will be celebrating two holidays on the weekend soon. Who are Cyril and Methodius and Jan Hus? Are these holidays always on a weekend, or on special dates? If so, do you get two working days off?"
Well, the two holidays are always celebrated on July 5 and 6. Unfortunately, we do not get two days off work when they fall on a weekend.
Cyril and Methodius were Christian missionaries who were sent to the Great Moravian Empire from Byzantium or Constantinople, known today as Istanbul, at the request of Moravian Prince Rostislav in the 9th century. Prince Rostislav was already familiar with Christianity and wanted to have it preached about in a Slavic language.
They translated Biblical and liturgical texts into the language of the old Slavs, adapted Greek script to Slav linguistic needs, wrote secular and church codes and established new trends in iconography, politics, diplomacy and economy.
Saints Cyril and Methodius also brought the Byzantine civilisation, which is the civilisation and culture of the eastern part of Europe, to the Great Moravian Empire. And this Byzantine culture met and then interacted with the Latin culture from Western Europe for the first important time. Unlike today, both religious cultures were able to work together hand in hand without any animosity.
Jan Hus was a religious reformer. However, some people thought he was a religious dissenter when he refused to stop accusing the Catholic clergy of a materialistic lifestyle and failed to adhere to their own preaching. The Catholic Church proclaimed him a heretic and he was burned at the stake in the German town of Constance on July 6, 1415. Hus' death resulted in the country waging years of religious wars and controversy. But, his teaching lived on, influencing Czechs for centuries to come.
Penny Roland listens to us in London, in the UK and asks the following question:
"I was surprised to see that you have two holidays right next to each other commemorating the religious figures Cyril and Methodius and Jan Hus. I thought most Czechs were atheist or at least weren't Christians!"
That, too, is a very common question we get asked. Historically, it's quite understandable why Czechs still keep these holidays. They are important religious personalities and Czechs, despite only some five percent of Czechs today being practicing Catholics, do not forget that their country once was very Christian. So, these two holidays are also a commemoration of the Czech Republic's Christian history.
Many foreigners also ask whether Czechs today, especially the younger generation, know who Jan Hus and Cyril and Methodius actually were. The answer is yes. Most Czechs know the historical facts.
And one thing we need to keep in mind is that although most Czechs are not religious, and they have had forty years of Communist rule that suppressed religion, they tolerate it quite freely. Although, with regards to the less organised religions, and more generalised spirituality, many more Czechs show an interest. People read horoscopes - are open to New Age spirituality and astrology.
And, of course, why do away with two successive holidays if they mean two successive days off work - if they don't fall on a week-end, that is.
Cyril Klusak from somewhere in the United States asks:
"As you've already noticed, my Christian name is Cyril. Since the Cyril and Methodius holiday is coming up, I was wondering whether you could tell me how the word Cyrillic is linked to the missionary Cyril. I was born in Czechoslovakia and remember there being a connection but I can't remember what it was. I could try to look it up myself but I'm sure many of your other listeners would be interested in the answer."
Saint Cyril was the inventor of the Cyrillic alphabet - an alphabet used for writing Old Church Slavonic as well as Russian and other languages of Eastern Europe and Asia. As we already mentioned at the start of the programme, Cyril and Methodius were asked to come to the Great Moravian Empire to preach the gospel in a Slavic language. They were Greeks themselves but they learned the language. Saint Cyril was the first to put a Slavic language into writing. And he did so, on the Czech lands.
All Slavic literature can be traced back to the fact that the Slavic language could be written down on paper with an alphabet and the place where you find the origin of that is in Cyril and Methodius who brought the gift of writing the language to the Slavic people. So, this is not just a very important development in Czech history but in Slavic history in general.
Nayomi Kenta sometimes listens to us on short-wave with her father in Melbourne, Australia. She wants to know:
Velehrad is where Cyril and Methodius did their first missionary work in the Great Moravian Empire. In fact, nobody knows exactly where it was but it must have been somewhere close to the current Velehrad in southern Moravia. At today's Velehrad, you find a Catholic shrine. Every year, a religious celebration and a pilgrimage take place at Velehrad on the Cyril and Methodius holiday. It is always attended by numerous Catholic Bishops who serve mass for thousands of believers who flock to the town.
And that is where we end today's Mailbox. A quick reminder of our contact information - you can send us an e-mail to [email protected] or a letter by regular post to the Radio Prague English Section, 120 99, Prague 2, in the Czech Republic.
