Farmer's life in 18th and 19th century

I was asked several times what everyday life in the 18th century was like. So, here is a very brief post about the farmer's life in 18th and 19th century.

It was in fact very similar to current life in rural areas, every day almost the same as another. The only difference was made by changing the seasons - life during the winter was much slower than in the spring and summer.

Shepherd, 1st half of the 18th century.

The day usually began at about 6 AM (or earlier during the summer, as soon as the sun was up) - animals prior to people, so first of all feeding of the animals, milking cows, letting chickens, geese and ducks out of the poultry-house, checking if all the animals are ok.

Josef Lada: Easter

Josef Lada is tightly connected to the Czech Easter traditions as he painted some of the most favorite Easter postcards we have here in the Czech Republic. 

Here are some of this paintings - they often show us a caroller (or more carollers) with pomlázka (a braided whip made from pussywillow twigs), a women giving him an egg or girl(s) running away. I wrote a blog post about Easter Monday traditions three years ago, here it is: Easter Monday.

Czech Traditional Costumes - Kroje, vol. II

I was asked about typical kroj for Eastern Bohemia and while I needed to do some research, I found another load of pretty old pictures of kroje. It from book called Národní kroje slovanské (Slavic national costumes) written by Adolf Liebscher in 1895/1896.

It shows not only Czech, Moravian and Silesian costumes, but also costume of Moravian Croatians, Polish, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and other costumes. But those from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia are in majority. The book is available online in the digital archives of Czech National Library.

 Costumes from Domažlice and Pilsen area

 Costumes from Pilsen and Třeboň area

 Costumes of Moravian Slovaks (Slovácko)

 Costumes from Starý Hrozenkov and Vallachia (Valašsko)

Costumes from Vallachia (Valašsko)

Immigrants from Nový Hrozenkov, 1875-1880

Nový Hrozenkov belongs among those towns which are located in a mountain valley in eastern part of Moravia. It was very poor region where most of people worked in agriculture. Nový Hrozenkov was quite large town, it had about 3000 people in 1900, but still - there were not enough work opportunities for quickly growing population.

Nový Hrozenkov on historical postcard

Traditional costumes (kroj) in Cheb (Eger) area

I searched for Cheb (Eger) area traditional costumes (kroj) because of Amy's question in comments under the blog post showing some pictures of these costumes from different regions of Bohemia. I have found quite interesting book published in 1845 and then again in 1877 about Cheb and its surroundings called Eger und das Egerland by Vinzenz Pröckl. There are some pictures of traditional costumes from this area. 

Egerland (Chebsko) is located in western part of Bohemia. It was fully German area and it became part of Czech lands during the reign of Charles IV. in 1348. 

The map above shows current Czech borders (in red). Light grey is original Egerland which was administered from the town Cheb and belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. Dark grey is that part of Egerland which was gived to Czech kings as a pledge in 1322.

Immigrants from Červená parish, Písek district

When one lady asked me to translate few records from Červená parish in Písek district in Southern Bohemia, I haven't expected I'll find number of notes about people who left for the U.S. from this parish. Here is a list of these people - and it's quite a list!

Červená parish church of St. Bartholomeus. Source: Fotohistorie.cz.

Kroj - local costumes

I'm often asked how kroj (Czech/Moravian/Silesian costume) looked like in different regions of the Czech Republic. I got a link to very interesting booklet published in 1885 showing both male and female krojs from different locations. There are not too many of them but I thought you would like to see them.

Name of the area is on top of the picture - in these cases Pilsen area.

The booklet is available online in the Moravian Regional Library.