je to celý náký křivý ale tak poslouží to účelu víšco

Ordinary weddings: "How dare she wear white dress at my wedding, how are others suppose to tell who is the bride??!!"

Girlies from Haná: "Alright bitches, if we all dress up in simmilar dress, we will confuse the evil spirits that could attack the bride."

WTF is a “čert”

-a guide from a bilingual Czech

while English has words like devil and demon, čert is a slavic mythical creature, that doesn’t have an accurate name in other languages

Czech has three (common) words:

Ďábel - THE devil, ruler of hell, usually interchangeable with Lucifer

Démon - demon, used when talking about other creatures from other mythologies

(and the enigma) Čert

Čerti (plural) are the devil's minions. They either work directly in hell or are sent on earth (often as a punishment) to make deals with sinners and drag them into hell. However they’re commonly depicted as silly idiots or playful, mischievous tricksters. And selling them one’s soul is seen as confirmation of their own foolishness (make stupid choices, win stupid prizes).

They look like humans (mostly men, but you can come across a lady here and there), with added goat features- horns, tails and sometimes even hooves. Their clothes are haggard, often featuring furs, they’re covered in soot and other dirt.

While in old tales are seen as an actual threat, nowadays (in mostly atheistic czech society) they’re depicted as pathetic little meow meows- comedic relief characters, laughable villains and even love interests for princesses (turned into humans for their good behavior)

They can be found in basically every other czech TV fairy tale. While I have seen people suggest to just use the word krampus in english, because of the surface level similarities between the two creatures, I wouldn’t recommend it. Because A)they have widely different vibes B)some czech (and other slavic) might punch you in a fit of patriotism

Disclaimer: while creatures like this are in many (if not all) slavic folklores, under varying names, this post is centered around the czechoslovak version, because that’s what I’m familiar with

Půlnočnice, Polednice, Klekánice

aka the nightwraith witch, the noonwraith witch and the twilight witch in czech, are old slavic witches which originally served the purpose to scare children (and people) who stayed outside their homes at these dangerous hours.

More (folk)lore, info and WIPs of this project on my P/treon.

Krakonoš

Rakvice🇨🇿

Some beautiful Moravian dresses/costumes from Rakvice, a village/municipality in the South East of Czechia🇨🇿. 

This place has wonderfully preserved their beautiful culture.

You will notice with Moravian dresses, women tend to have large, puffy dresses with their distinctive huge, wide skirts and abundant petticoats underneath.

In many regions in South Moravia, men's costumes typically include a long white embellished ribbon with a decorated cockade on the right side of their vests as you can see above.

I managed to find some older photos from 1959 too❤️

A traditional dress/costume in Czech & Slovak is called a "Kroj" (pronounced like kroi). I love how highly and beautifully embellished each garment is from here❤️

Was looking for some info about witches which lead me to Baba Yaga (czech Ježibaba) which is how I found this charming description -  “Takové potvory, ješto mají tvář ženskú, tělo svinie a nohy koňské a slovú jezenky.” “Such beasts that have a face of a woman, body of a swine and legs of a horse and are called Jezenky ( = Ježibaba/Baba Yaga).” Well, obviously I had to draw one and then it spread into three illustrations for czech folk tale O Smolíčkovi. Tale about a boy who lives in a wood with a deer with golden antlers. 🌲🌼 commissions/store/ko-fi/instagram    

Mighty Boosh / Slavic folklore 2!

Did you know that the czech folk creature Vodník (Water Goblin) is actually similar to Old Gregg?

He can be a comical character in a green suit and red boots, or he can be a fucking scary monster who drags innocent women underwater and forces them into marriage (and murders their babies aaand others). And he collects souls in cute little silly chubby mugs and stores them in his underwater home. Likes to smoke his pipe in the willow tree by moonlight, is often associated with water fairies (or mermaids) and can be actually quite nice

In many places in Europe, as well as outside of it, e.g. in Asia, there are legends told about figures, usually of female gender, who, according to folk belief, watch over spinning, punish lazy spinsters, make sure that no spinning is done on days when spinning is forbidden and so forth. Many legends tell of the visits of these beings, and how they punish spinsters who violate spinning taboos or fail to finish their spinning on time etc. They are also frequently described as being equipped with flax and spinning tools while in the act of spinning.

Thus, in Slovenia, Austria and Germany we find Perchta/Pehtra/ Perhta/Pehtra baba/Pehtrna/Pirta/Pehta/Percht/Berchta/Zlata baba, in Germany Frau Holle or Holda, Stampe/Stempe/Stempa, and in Switzerland Frau Saelde in the role of the “Spinnstubenfrau”. The most prominent Slovenian researcher in these traditions, Niko Kuret, points out the similarities with beings which in Slovenia we also know by other names, such as Kvatrnica, Torka or Torklja. The Italians know a similar being named Befana, the French have Tante Airie, and we also find them with several different names in Central Asia, from Iran through Tajikistan to the basin of the lower Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers etc. (Kuret 1997; 1989, II: 458). There are also various other beings with whom we could equate them to a certain extent, for instance the French Heckelgauclere, the Swiss Sträggele and Chrungele, the German Herke, the Slovenian/ Czech/Slovakian Lucy and others.

Mythical beigns punishing the breaking of taboos on spinning by Mirjam Mencej

Čerti

Mám toho dost!!

Chci stránku na které bude mapka České Republiky, na té mapce budou tečky, a každá z těchto teček bude rozkliknutelná, a budou v ní všechny kroje z daného města/vsi/oblasti.

Všechny kategorie; svatební, dětské, vše co se zde najde.

Od Západních Čech až po Slezsko.

A speciální sekci pro folklorní soubory prosím.

Nebaví mě si furt hledat jednotlivé kroje a najít maximálně tři fotky v rozlišení za které by se i moje Tamagoči stydělo, focené nejmíň pět kilometrů od nositele.

Vodník - scéna z Kytice

trochu jsem zkoušela fish-eye perspektivu a tak z toho vyšlo tohle

| JEZINKA |

Jezinka (Jezinky is plural in czech, sometimes called Bezinky) are certain kind of forest demon, also known as Divoženka (literally a "wild woman"). They could be interpreted as forest witches as we know them from classic fairy tales. Their role can be both negative and more of a neutral - just minding their own business, living in a forest, far away from civilisation - ah, what a dream!

More (folk)lore, info and WIPs of this project on my P/treon.

My depiction of Rusalka for the Herbarium 5e supplement by Fez Inkwright.

I was so happy when Fez asked if I wanted to illustrate her for the kicksarter art stretch-goals.

(preorders are still open: https://herbarium.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders )

literally something i didn't realize that was normalized in general western fantasy is the idea that dragons are restricted to one head (i mean, there's exceptions, but tiamat from dnd is the only example i could pull off the top of my head)

because! in czech folklore/fairytales and connected media, the idea that dragons have three or seven heads is very normal, up to the point where you can find it in toddler's books. in one of my favorite fairytale movies, princ bajaja, the battle with the dragon has the added tension and three-part structure provided by the dragon's more hydra-like quality (without the need to cauterize the stumps with fire though)

(i have no idea where i'm going with this point. dragons cool? musing about the fine minutae of dragons from different cultures fun? something something 1 head=dragon as singular theme/threat, 2 heads=discussions of opposite/conflicting natures, 3 heads=classical tripling of tension, 4 to 6 heads=why, 7 heads=great calamity upon you and your kingdom and your entire family, etc.)