Pumpkins are being harvested this time of year, so a popular soup to eat is pumpkin and cream with pumpkin seed garnish. I think it is absolutely delicious. I love a hot soup on a cold, rainy day.
In honor of celebrating 100 years of Czech identity and culture, the Prague National Opera House put on a performance of Libuše, an opera from the work of Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, about a legendary queen from the 8th century who prophesied the creation of the Czech nation and founded the city of Prague. It was a beautiful and passionate performance and it was the first opera that I have ever seen.
This week, the Czech people celebrated the Catholic holiday Dušičky by going to the cemetery and cleaning the graves of their relatives and influential Czech figures, and by decorating the area with flowers and candles. The families then said a prayer for their loved ones and reminisced about their time on earth. Other nations celebrate this holiday as well, by the name of All Souls Day in English. The warm glow from the cemetery filled with vibrant flowers and visitors was a beautiful sight on the dark, autumn night in small towns around the Czech Republic.
I finally finished the book Saturnin by Zdeněk Jirotka (1942) and am very satisfied with the novel. It is a very light-hearted and humorous tale that has rich descriptions of life in the Czech Republic. Here is one of my favorite excerpts from the text, "The sky over the Western horizon was a riot of colour.
