Today’s A Journey through Aesthetic Realms will be presented in Czech, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian,Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Hallo, graceful viewers, welcome to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television. The Czech Republic is a central European nation with more than two thousand years of history. South Moravia is an administration division in the southeastern part of the country, known for its picturesque farming villages and rich folklore and art traditions. In today’s program, we will look at the exquisite ethnic costumes of this region. The dazzling traditional garments of South Moravia are greatly diversified into many sub-regional styles.

They include Brno, Dolňácko, Haná, Horacke, Horňácko, Kyjov, Lachian, Podluží, Slovacke, Wallachian costumes, and many more. Typical women’s folk dresses consist of petticoats, mudflaps, embroidered bodices, embroidered lace shirts, collar, main trimmed skirt, folk shoes, wreaths, scarves, and caps. Men’s clothes comprise lace shirts, trimmed jackets, three-quarter pants, boots, and hats. The vibrant designs reflect the local residents’ contentment of their simple and happy rural life.

If you ever visit South Moravia, you will fall in love with it at first sight. You will find picturesque villages with traditional facades with folk ornaments there. Common people have expressed their inward feelings there from the old ages. Songs and dances have been created there for centuries. The folk costume which has signs of wealth and beauty of this region on it has become cultural heritage.

Traditions live not only thanks to songs and dances but also thanks to the folk costumes, which are still an inseparable part of the life of people in South Moravia. The girls' costumes from Svatobořice-Mistřín show the typical features of the costume from the Kyjov area. The footwear is tall boots. A small black apron, “fertušek,” is worn over the outer red above-knees skirt, “pavka.” A red bodice is worn over the white shirt.

The typical features are the large frilly sleeves fringed with black lace. Sometimes a combination of white apron and white embroidered neck band is used. The headwear of young girls is a flower wreath with ribbons and a small crown, called “ruzenin.” Another typical part of the Kyjovsko costume is a band embroidered with black thread that is worn around the neck. The folk costume has been worn to the present time and it is inherited from generation to generation, including the youngest one.

Thus you may see the folk costumes in many shapes at different rituals and celebrations. One of such old customs is a spring ritual called “Little Queens.” It is a young girls' carol round with a ceremonial dance, originally documented in the Brno and south Kyjov areas. It is held on Whitsun Sunday, which is called Pentecost in the folk calendar. A central group of four girls sustains a large scarf over a pair of girls representing the king and the queen. This ancient Whitsun ritual is also rooted as a tradition in the Tisnov area. Here the little queens are clad all in white.

A small wreath of white flowers is interwoven in their hair. Only the king and the queen wear wreaths of colored flowers with a small mirror in the middle. Here the girls also adorn a small tree and go caroling. Folk costumes belong to cultural values that bear witness to the life of people in the past. You will see garments worn on workdays or garments worn on feast days which reveal at first sight if the wearer is a single girl or a married woman or a bride. Almost every piece of the garment shows painstaking, precise handwork, which is irreplaceable by machine.

Pleated yellow skirts called “fertochy” were a typical feature of Hornacko costumes. Originally they were dyed with saffron, which gave them a yellow-golden color. The pleating must be done on damp fabric and the individual folds are formed with fingers. Women from Hornacko used to wear a scarf tied on their heads in the shape of a cap with an embroidered top. Wedding costumes belong naturally to the most beautiful ones. A wedding costume had a lot of components. The bride was always dressed starting from the footwear.

Originally it was high boots. Then the bride put on the “rubac” and started adding underskirts. These were made of starched coarse cotton cloth. The number of underskirts depended on the girl's figure. Slim girls wore up to five underskirts. An apron called “fertoch” was tied over the upper underskirt. The “fertoch” was made of a finer unstarched cloth. The next step was putting on a short blouse with puffed sleeves and a bodice. The sleeves are pleated using the same technique for pleating like the “fertoch,” where heavily starched “kadle” are stitched.

The bodice was made of green velvet. It had rich embroidery on the front and on the back it was decorated with yellow-orange flowers. A decorative satin bow covers the broad waist of the “fertoch.” The bride wore a frilly, white band around her neck. A characteristic sign of the girl being a bride is the “bowing.” In the past, the adornment of the bride's attire with bows would take several hours during the night before the wedding ceremony.

Costumed weddings can be seen commonly in South Moravian churches, where not only the bride and the groom but also some of the wedding guests wear folk costumes. Wearing the traditional garments, the bride and the groom express their thanks to their parents and grandparents, because it is from them that they have received many of the components of the costumes. It may also be a complete costume that is inherited from generation to generation.

For centuries, farming has been the primary trade of South Moravian communities. The main crops are barley, wheat, rye, and potatoes. While working on the fields, men and women are traditionally dressed in neat outfits.

The typical male working costume from Vaclavice consists of high boots, long white trousers, a blue apron, a white shirt, and a short dark blue vest. On their heads, the men wore hats. Women usually used to wear a red, richly pleated skirts adorned with tucks and a blue aprons tied around their waists. According to the season, they wore a short- or long-sleeve jacket, over which they wore a simple vest, which could be replaced by a longer work aprons tied behind their necks.

On their heads, they wore a linen headscarf tied under the chin. The nice rye, we’ll have a pretty bread. God will give it to us, we’ll need it. May it will be plenty for our children, for our children. The end of the harvest season marks the time for celebration and thanksgiving. For South Moravians, this is their chance to showcase their elegant traditional clothes as well as music and dance talents.

The harvest feast belongs to traditional feasts in every Moravian village. It’s celebrated as a Christian feast and also as a day of joy and abundance. The young people dressed in festive costumes mustn’t be missing at the celebration. The folk costume for the boys from Podluzi fascinates for its long red trousers and a white shirt, over which a short waistcoat is worn.

The girls from Tvrdonice wear spectacular costumes distinguished by a large number of pleated skirts and a special shape of the headwear. They wear a festive crown which has a shape of a red hat, which is called “horns” or “kokes.” There is a little posy with the long ribbon on the crown of the head. The whole costume is magnificently decorated with fine embroidery that symbolizes this land’s image.

Passed down from generation to generation, the magnificent folk costumes of South Moravia are like wonderful flowers in an enchanting garden. Each distinct variety is nurtured by social, folkloric and ceremonial factors of its particular geographic location. Despite the sub-regional differences, all of them express the joy and contentment of the local residents for their simple and self-sufficient way of life. May the peaceful citizens of the Czech Republic be greatly blessed with lasting happiness and abundance.

Lovely viewers, thank you for your charming presence on today’s episode of A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television. Up next is Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living, after Noteworthy News. May heavenly glory shine on you and your loved ones.