Each day of the year except national holidays comes with a Czech name (or names) to be celebrated. It is common practice to give flowers or some other gift like a box of chocolates on a person’s Name Day – you’ll notice many of the flower shops around town often list name days on a blackboard outside.
The original list of names was from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints. For example, Saint Michael’s feast was held on September 29th; thus, this day was later dedicated to all Michals. Nowadays, Czechs experiment with more exotic names that are not in the calendar, but the Czech name days are still very popular.
The name day is less important than a birthday to Czech people and is celebrated in some families. However, the name day celebration can be held together with friends or co-workers of the same name and in this way it can grow in size and “importance”. The proportion of the population that celebrates name days is falling; the name day is nowadays more likely to celebrate for the sake of celebrating or giving a present to somebody one loves.
