Všechno nejlepší k svátku!

Published on by Grace

“All the best for your name day!” That’s what the title means.

Here in the Czech Republic, everyday is somebody’s name day.  So technically, Czechs have 2 celebrations of their existence – the day they were born and their name day.   Although name days commonly bear less importance than birthdays, quite a few people still celebrate it.  Based on my research, it is either celebrated by giving flowers and chocolates or if the person is older, by going out with friends and co-workers for beer.

It is interesting to note that in the past, parents were compelled to choose the names of their children based on the name days in the calendar.  Any highly unusual name needs the approval of a “special office” before a child can be baptized or registered using that name.

I don’t have a name day.  If I were Czech, my parents would’ve appealed to that “special office’ to get my name approved.  It is not on the Czech name day calendar.

If  fate was written in the stars, Jakub’s name was written on the sand.  As I was noting down schedules on my Czech calendar this morning, I just realized that today is Jakub’s name day.  I wonder what I’ll do to celebrate it.  I cannot buy him flowers or chocolates nor can I go out for beer with him.

What would you do if I were you?

27 thoughts on “Všechno nejlepší k svátku!”

  4. In Latvia the name day is somewhat reversed. Friends and family come visit to wish you a happy day and you are expected to have goodies to serve them, though the guests usually bring flowers. My name is a popular Latvian one and my name day is March 28th.

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  9. In the Czech Rep., if it is your name day especially your parents and your partner should never forget to congratulate you and say something nice to you, presents are very common (On my name day I got three roses and a voucher to a clothes shop from my mother, chocolate bar from my father and a silly and sweet key pendant from my boyfriend, several of my friends sent me a warm text messages).

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    1. Wow! That’s really nice. This year, I didn’t do anything special for my husband on his name day because I didn’t know. (We didn’t have the Czech calendar back then) I have to make up for it next year. 🙂

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  12. Hi Grace, it is the same for Polish. But I was surprised to hear about this in the beginning because in my family in PH I know that a lot of relatives, even one of my brothers got their names in the “calendar”. It is the name on the calendar the day they were born so no other day of celebration aside from the birthday. I am not sure what kind of calendar this is, and if the names are fixed on a certain calendar day.

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