Matičky is an umbrella term for a series of traditions observed on several dates at Advent and Easter.
The word matičky is a plural of the word matička. It is the diminutive form of the word matka (mother) and although not a very frequently used word nowadays, in the past, it would be used in two meanings. One is a very sweet and poetic word to call one’s mother, the other one is used to refer to the Virgin Mary.
One of my readers posted an interesting question under one of my Advent posts. Her mother remembered a tradition involved “matichka”. I had no knowing of said tradition though I mentioned it could refer to Virgin Mary. And I am so glad for this question because it made me research this possible tradition and ultimately learn about it.
According to Čeněk Zíbrt, Chození s matičkou has been a part of Moravian in two different seasons of the year:
The Easter tradition has different names – Chození s matičkou, slavnosti Matiček, Matičky, Ježíškovy Matičky. On White Saturday, unmarried girls dressed in traditional costumes (kroj) receive special attributes (statue of Jesus or cross) from the local priest and take them to their village to decorate. On Easter Sunday, people of the village carry their attribute in a procession accompanied by a brass orchestra all the way to the mass where they return the attribute to the priest.
The list of towns and villages keeping this tradition used to be longer, however, the communist regime supressed it to the extend that nowadays, there are only three town in which you could still see it performed – Bělkovice-Lašťany, Dolany and Bohuňovice, all in the Haná region.
The second season of Matičky is Advent time when these are also called Mikulášky or Mikulajky, in some places even Smrt (Death). The exact dates differed from town to town. On December 4, they are what you might already know from my blog as Barborky, however, December 5, 6 and 8 would be the dates in places like Podluží or Kozlovice. Whatever the date, the performance would be very similar – matičky would go from house to house asking parents about the behavior of their children, checking if the children knew their prayers, ocassionally also rewarding good children and symbolically punishing the naughty ones.
Zíbrt mentions that in Kozlovice, during nine nights before the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, women carrying a statue of Jesus would visit nine houses. They would leave the statue in one of the houses to pick it up the next night and bring it to the next house on their list, only the last house kept the statue until the day of Hromnice. The women would then come every Saturday to pray to the statue.
In several villages in Silesia and northern Moravia, on December 6, two women dressed in white and armed with birch tree twigs would walk accompanied by two boys with faces painted black with ashes and dressed in fur coats turned inside out. While the boys rattle their chains, the women hit the windows of the houses with the twigs until they’re let in.
