I Love a Country that Celebrates Four Independence Days

Commemorating the past and its heroes in central Europe.

Happy Freedom and Democracy Day! It is a great day for pork knuckles, klobasa, knedlíky, and raising your glass of ležák pivo to toast the Czech people and their nation!

We moved to the Czech Republic in 2018. Prague to be precise. We love it here, and very quickly we grew to appreciate Czech history and admire the Czech people. And yes, this country has four annual holidays that commemorate their independence. Each one with very good reason.

The Czechs have always been a passionately independent people. Look up the Hussites, for example. That independent streak has held together the Czechs in the face of near constant domination and manipulation by foreign powers. Their four independence days are a testament to the Czechs’ resolve and persistence. In historical order here are the sources of the four independence holidays in the Czech calendar.

Independent Czechoslovak State Day — (Den vzniku samostatného československého státu) — 28 October

Commemorates the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918. The Czech and Slovak lands had been territories of the Austrian Empire then of Austria-Hungary…