Majáles is the celebration of May and student life with a surprisingly long history.
As the name Majáles suggests, it’s a festival celebrated in the month of May. Beside the student processions, its staple events in the recent years have become concerts of local as well as international stars.
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History of Majáles
The history of this festival reaches back to the 15th century when students’ recession, pranks and provocations were tolerated at certain occasions. Even middle school students used to have a free last day of April to celebrate the upcoming month, traditionally spending the day with their teacher in nature. Over time, majáles became a university students celebration.
It hasn’t always been just about the celebrations but rather an opportunity for the students to show their will to create resistance to the regime. Alois Jirásek described the festival of his time (2nd half of the 19th century) as free-spirited, anti-clerical and patriotic.
In Czechoslovakia’s First Republic, students rather lost interest in the celebrations and after WW2, it became more of a political event that mostly disappeared in the 1950s. After the fall of Stalin’s regime and its tight grip on Czechoslovakia, the festival was renewed. Although still under the strict political rule, it was a time of student emancipation that peaked at the Prague Spring.
Majáles was officially permitted in 1964 and when the ideological supervision let up, something very unexpected happened – the American Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg was elected king of Prague majáles in 1965. The regime responded immediately, detained Ginsberg for drunkenness and other charges and he was officially expelled from the country. Majáles took place for one more year and then was replaced by other spring celebrations.
Did you know that Allen Ginsberg wrote a poem called Král Majáles? You can read it here.
After the Revolution
The next majáles wouldn’t be celebrated until 25 years later, after the Velvet Revolution. The new king of Prague majáles was actually crowned by Allen Ginsberg.
Modern Majáles
In 2004, the cities Brno, Olomouc and Zlín organized “Moravian Majáles” and just a year later, more cities joined in and their celebrations were joined in and the official name of the event became “Czech Majáles”. Some cities maintained a rather non-commercial nature of the festivities while others made it into highly commercial and mass-attended several-day events. There have been efforts to make parallel events on a non-profit basis.
King and Queen
It has been a tradition to elect a King of Majáles and recently, also the Queen. In some cities, you can see posters informing you not only about the concerts and where to get tickets to majáles but also how and who to vote for online to become the king and queen.
