Czech national folk costumes vary between men and women as well as between villages and towns. Women's costumes typically include a long decorated skirt, shirt, and headpiece, with wealthier women decorating their costumes with precious stones. Men's costumes consist of a shirt, trousers, hat, and vest, with decorated hats and vests indicating higher social status. Folk songs were traditionally sung communally with small variations, but younger generations now favor new Czech songs, though older folk songs remain widely known. Typical folk instruments include bagpipes, flutes, violins, bass, and accordions.

1. NATIONAL FOLKORE
CLOTHING AND SONGS

2. FOLKLORE COSTUMES
● The WORD for Czech national folk costume is „KROJ“.
● COSTUMES are different not only for women and men
but from village to village, from town to town.
● Costume is not worn as ordinary clothes,
but as a holiday dress, such as village feasts,
festivals, maybe weddings, church
holidays etc.

3. Women's costume
The women's costume has a long skirt
decorated with the laces and decorations,
a shirt and a headband over the head.
Costume can be also decorated with precious
stones, tinsel and other adornments, by this
way a woman showed that her family is rich.
No woman had the same costume,
and to this day there were not
found two identical costumes.

4. Women's costumes

5. Men's costumes
● Male costume consists of three parts:
● 1) shirt and trousers 2) hat and 3) vest.
● A white shirt is usually not decorated. Trousers are white, blue or
black and they may be decorated with embroidering in the rich areas.
● The hat is not an essential part of costume but most men wear it.
It has different colors and mostly goes to the vest.
● The hat may be simple or decorated nicely so that people notice it.
There can be gold and silver ornaments or
feathers or other decorative elements.
● The vest is not strictly necessary, but it shows that
the family is holding the principles and traditions, and
that the boy does not come from a poor family.

6. Men's costume

7. Folk songs
● People sang them among themselves, with the
time of the emergence of different versions of
lyrics and melodies. However, the differences are
minimal.
● At present, the young people do not sing folk
songs so often, they are replaced by new Czech
songs. But everyone knows them.
● They are the first songs you'll learn
in a kindergarten or from Granny.

8. Typical folk instruments
bagpipes
flute
violin
bass
Dulcimer
accordion

9. DEMO of folk songs
Eva a Vašek – Bílá orchidej:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnhnxjA_WW0
Beskyde beskyde:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uf_u7s0yYo
Ej, zomrela mi žena:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYAcuy_BHf8

10. The End