Prague – parade of ghosts: Skeleton, dead monk, hampejznice and others

“Every ghost or shadow in Prague, who doesn’t want to celebrate Halloween, takes the pumpkin off the candle and goes to celebrate the souls!With this slogan, the ghosts set off from the Dusty Gate towards the other bank of the Vltava. At the head of the procession walked, for example, a more than two-meter skeleton, the Genius Loci Pragensis, or the ghost of Prague, a headless trumpeter, a hampian woman, but also a Turkish merchant.

In addition to comedians in ghost costumes, they joined the parade over a hundred children and parents in and without costumes. But even random passers-by listened intently to the stories of Prague ghosts. The participants of the parade set off from Prašná brány at 6 p.m. and after 8 p.m. they traveled to Jánský vršek on the Lesser side, where a fire show awaited them. Along the way, they shared their stories with the participants of the procession, among the first to present a skeleton that lost its life in Celetná Street in ancient times.

Skeleton from Celetná

“I served under my master, who was a respected professor here in Karolina. He was a respected doctor, but also a weirdo. He had a collection of various skeletons,” the skeleton explained to the parade participants. The geeky professor should have had a hunchback skeleton in his collection, a skeleton that had bones like skewers, or a skeleton that had head like a stud. However, one day he became interested in the skeleton of his overgrown servant.

“I had deep in my pocket and he offered me thirty gold coins. I went to celebrate with sheer joy, I visited a lot of pubs until I didn’t know where I was or how to get home. It was bitterly cold, and as I was tall, I lay down on the ground. In the morning they found me like a stone,” the skeleton continued. Since then, brave Prague residents can see him begging students after midnight to redeem himself again for thirty gold coins.

An open-minded girl who was nothing holy

In Celetná Street, together with the skeleton, there is also a monk with a hampieznik. According to legend, they entered the undead together. “She was a young, beautiful, open girl, who was nothing holy. One day she met a priest to whom she revealed herself“, the priest recalled the unfortunate encounter. It is said that her behavior offended the priest so much that he bent over her with his cross to banish all immoral thoughts from her mind.

Characters from Prague legends walked through Prague on All Souls’ Eve. Along the way, they told people their stories

Author: Blesk:Kopáč Karel

“But he waved so violently that he ate along with the lewd thoughts from his head expelled the whole brain. Out of horror at this act, he fell to his knees and suffered a stroke,” the priest recounted his unfortunate fate. Since then, he has been running around the streets of Prague at night with a hampejnice.

The beauty of Prague legends

The Museum of Prague Ghosts and Legends, which organizes the parade, celebrated its fifteenth birthday this year. The parade of ghosts is a long-standing traditionits main purpose is to recall the beauty of Prague legends, but also that there is no need to celebrate a foreign holiday, Halloween, when it belongs to Czech traditions Souls. In addition to the ghosts of Prague, costumes of devils, water men and other Czech fairy-tale characters also appeared in the parade. But there were also witches, ghosts and other monsters.