Strani, South Moravia, July 26 (CTK) – Several thousand of Czechs and Slovaks took part in a brotherhood festival held on Velka Javorina, the highest mountain of the White Carpathians, on the border between Slovakia and the Czech Republic on Sunday.
The annual festival remembers of common past of the two nations.
The festival was first organised in 1992, then in protest against the splitting of Czechoslovakia in two countries and as a demonstration of concord between the two nations.
Now the festival is a meeting of old friends and brass music.
“We have always had good relations, the division (of the state) did not bring much, at least we in the border area feel it so,” said Antonin Zamecnik, former mayor of Strani, who has been a regular participant in the festival since 1999.
Organiser of this year’s festival is Martin Benatinsky, mayor of the Slovak village of Lubina.
“People with whom a grew up and met in school were from the Czech Republic,” Benatinsky said.
“I am still a Czechoslovak,” one of a group of women told CTK.
“My grandma is not happy that the country split. We have family in Slovakia,” said a young girl from Strani who came to listen to a concert of a folklore band.
On New Year’s Eve, a Czech-Slovak celebration is organised on the Velka Javorina mountain.
