Rotating Spheres: Gendered Commemorative Practice at the 1903 Jan Hus Memorial Festival in Prague

Abstract

It will be a memorable day for every Czech.In 1903, former mayor Dr Jan Podlipný used these words to petition the Prague City Council to finance a nationalist festival dedicated to the memory of Jan Hus. Arguing for a celebration devoted to the fifteenth-century priest and church reformer who had become a nationalist icon in the nineteenth century, Podlipný emphasized the “memorable” quality of the planned event.2Indeed, the purpose of the celebration was to create memory on several levels. The festival itself would gather Czechs in great numbers, creating a memory of a shared community, which would bolster the Czech nationalist spirit for future campaigns. The festival's purpose was to lay a cornerstone to a Jan Hus Memorial, a monument that would etch a permanent memory of Jan Hus into Prague's landscape. Last, by publicly and collectively commemorating Hus, Czech nationalists would create a shared memory of the nation's past.