Milevsko, South Bohemia, Feb 10 (CTK) – The traditional Czech folk carnival, this year with more than 700 costumes and masks some of which were inspired by the present Winter Olympic Games, moved through the Czech town of Milevsko on Saturday.
Karel Prochazka, head of the organising association, said the carnival comprised even 1200 masks in the past. “But even with seven or eight hundred masks the parade is long enough and we are a sort of a national culture monument,” he said.
People make most of the costumes themselves.
The Milevsko Masopust parade is UNESCO-listed.
This year, the 156th carnival is supporting Czech speed skater Karolina Erbanova who will compete in South Korea next week. “Her mother lived in Milevsko and was my classmate,” Prochazka said.
In Milevsko, the carnival has a long history. It developed from medieval folk plays.
The Masopust parades are organised in a number of places in the Czech Republic this weekend. People revel and east before Lent, a traditional period of 40 days of fasting before Easter.
