Which Czech public holidays can we still experience authentically in their current, dominant forms—those shaped and promoted by the state and its institutions? What role do memory and cultural institutions, schools, churches, the media, or even shopping malls play in them? What do we actually celebrate on public holidays? That we don’t have to go to work? And what if we go anyway? What stories do we tell about ourselves on significant dates?
This series aims to reflect on the social meaning of holidays and to open space for their active, radical, and critical reinterpretation. It offers the public the chance to experience a unique year of HOLI-DAZE: hybrid events, mutated celebrations, and subversive provocations.
Additional Information
We are interested in holidays as performances of statehood and of national and civic identities. As rituals of memory and power. As stagings of values. We focus on ceremonies, customs, and traditions; on the mythology and religiosity of individual holidays; on the history of their establishment and on international comparisons. We want to discuss where social consensus may be possible in 2026—and where it is not. We are interested in how tradition becomes institution, how art can intervene in this process, and for whom holidays exist—and for whom they do not.
We will explore the narratives meant to confirm and shape state and national identity through a powerful tool: public days off. For many holidays, however, their history and negotiated meanings today remain overshadowed by the need for rest from work and buried beneath layers of cultural, political, and market-driven overlays.
Programme
29/3/2026 – EASTER
besiidka (Nikola Chromečková, David Hotárek)
1/5/2026 – LABOUR DAY
fasáda (Helen Kukulová, Anežka Ondračková, Vojtěch Zajíček)
8/5/2026 – VICTORY DAY
Divadlo Setkání (Tobiáš Nevřiva, Tereza Dostálová, Nela Štěpánková)
5/7/2026 – DAY OF THE SLAVIC APOSTLES CYRIL AND METHODIUS
Zuzana-Markéta Macková, Tomek Pawłowski-Jarmołajew
6/7/2026 – DAY OF THE BURNING AT THE STAKE OF JAN HUS
In view of the recommendation of the expert committee, we have decided not to select any of the submitted projects for this public holiday.
28/9/2026 – CZECH STATEHOOD DAY
Eva Truncová
28/10/2026 – INDEPENDENCE DAY OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA
měkký í (Michaela Kocandová, Valentýna Vránová, Zuzana Staňková)
17/11/2026 – STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY DAY
Ester Hotová, Robert Vlček
20/12/2026 – CHRISTMAS
Libor Staněk et al.