Chodov is a region in western Bohemia rich in folk traditions that are still alive today – be it the Chodov cuisine with its delicious, richly decorated cakes, the local dances, folk costumes or bagpipe music. The people of Chodov are proud of their traditions and the annual Chodov Folk Festival is a celebration of this heritage.
Every year, the organizers welcome around 600 artists – soloists and members of folk groups from home and abroad. Dancers rehearse their steps, bagpipers prepare their repertoire and local bakeries work around the clock to bake thousands of cakes with poppy seeds, farmer’s cheese or cottage cheese, whipped with egg yolk, plum jam, vanilla, raisins and almonds. Just like the decor of local Chod ceramics or regional folk costumes, these cakes must be decorated according to centuries-old traditions that reflect the folk style of the region. And considering the expected 70,000-80,000 visitors, this is a big challenge! Lenka Vondrovicová, manager of the Bořice bakery, says it is a team effort.
“Everyone has their own special task – preparing the dough, decorating the cakes and putting them in the oven. It’s like an assembly line. We had to buy 900 kg of flour, 700 kg of sugar, 6,000 eggs, 2.5 tons of curd and lots of rum – because you can’t bake a Choden cake without rum!”
Another Czech speciality that you won’t find anywhere else and that fascinates foreign visitors is the poppy seed fillings of many Czech cakes, or “koláče” as they are called in Czech. Many foreigners consider poppy seeds to be opiates and are afraid to try them, but in small quantities, as found on cakes, they are perfectly safe and give the cakes a very special taste. Poppy seeds have a long tradition in Czech cuisine and are even eaten by small children. The poppy seeds and plum jam are used to decorate large and small cakes, Marie Johanková explains.
“In the Lower Chod region, we cover the pies with cottage cheese or farmer’s cheese, which serves as a background for decoration, and then use plum jam to create ornaments such as birds and flowers, which you also find on our traditional costumes.”
Visitors can buy these pies at the open-air market along with various souvenirs of regional arts and crafts, such as Chod ceramics.
The Chod Festival also has a spiritual aspect – it takes place at the same time as the pilgrimage of St. Lawrence. As every year, an open-air mass is held on Saturday and Sunday on the Vavřineček hill in front of the St. Lawrence Church.
Pilgrimages to St. Lawrence have been held in Domažlice since the beginning of the 20th century. After 1948, the communist regime did not want to continue the tradition of church celebrations and the religious aspect was suppressed, with the emphasis being on folk traditions. In the early 1990s, the tradition of combining the celebration with a pilgrimage was revived.
