The Velvet Divorce

May 16, 2013

Misha Griffith

Below Misha Griffith tells the story of the Velvet Divorce as seen from her perspective in Prague and Bratislava as 1992 came to a close and 1993 opened. – Allan

My husband and I were in Prague on December 31, 1992. Many of the Czechs we talked to felt that dividing up would not be a bad thing–they made a bad joke of getting rid of the “useless one third.” However, others felt very melancholy about a nation made of two parts that had been through so much that was now breaking up. Remember, Alexander Dubcek, the leader during the Czechoslovak Spring of 1968, had just been killed in a car wreck a few weeks before this. He was a Slovak, but was seen as a reformer and a victim of the socialist terror. There were many rumors flying about that it had not been an accident. The Czechs were very wary of Meciar as he was a strong Slovak nationalist who reminded them too much of Slovakian leaders in World War Two.

Personally, my husband and I decided early the morning of the 31st that we would rather see a new nation being born than to watch a country losing a third of itself. So we hopped on a train for Bratislava, and made it to the main square around 10pm. The town seemed deserted, and we shivered in the cold night air–it was just as Abercrombie described. At a few minutes after 11, the doors of the surrounding buildings opened, and thousands of people flooded into the square. They had been smart enough to find restaurants and bars in which to stay warm until the actual festivities. Small rockets and the corks from bottles of sect started to pop. We made the acquaintance of the captain of a Danube River tug, who introduced us to the two most important people in his life–his wife and his engineer. He was inordinately proud of becoming a Slovak. The engineer nodded vigorously in agreement.

At the sound of marching feet, the crowd opened up to allow a group of soldiers to bring the new flag to the stage. This was the first time many had seen it. The music of the Slovak anthem, “Thunder over the Tatras” played as they slowly raised the flag. Then the music of Strauss’ “Blue Danube Waltz” poured over the crowd, and the gathered tens of thousands of us waltzed. You can see the picture of that in the September 1993 edition of the National Geographic.

Most of the Slovaks we met were quite happy about the Velvet Divorce. A few were a bit ambivalent. I am going to guess that those who outright opposed it were not inclined to go out on that bitterly cold night to watch. One interesting detail I noticed was that the soldiers had received new shoulder patches with the Slovak Cross and three hills emblem. Some of the patches had been properly sewn on, others were held in place by clearly visible safety pins. I wonder if the safety pins were a subtle political statement.

Since the Divorce, both nations have had their ups and downs, and still struggle with leaving the socialist system behind. That the Divorce happened peacefully is a testament to both countries. After the festivities, I spent a few hours talking to two Red Cross workers who had recently left Croatia. The stories they told of the fighting during the breakup of Yugoslavia chilled me to the core. We can be so thankful the Czechs and the Slovaks never experienced such hatred and destruction.

Do you have any memories of that period that you would like to share? If so, please post them in the comment section below. Where were you? Do you remember a feeling in the air, a song that was popular, a food that or a smell that brings you back to that time? How did you celebrate or mourn? How different was January 1, 1993 from November 17, 1989? What were your feelings at the time of the split?  What are your feelings today?

Misha Griffith is a graduate student of Modern European History at George Mason University. Her current research on the Czechoslovak Spring of 1968 grew out of her experiences as an ex-pat in Czechoslovakia in 1992-93.

Allan Stevo writes on Slovak culture at www.52inSk.com. He is from Chicago and spends most of his time travelling Europe and writing.  You can find more of his writing at www.AllanStevo.com.  If you enjoyed this post, please use the buttons below to like it on Facebook or to share it with your friends by email.  You can sign up for emails on Slovak culture from 52 Weeks in Slovakia by clicking here.

Rusyns

Written May 5, 2013

Allan Stevo

Slovakia is Central Europe by many definitions. Those who say otherwise generally tend to be ignorant on the topic or joking around.

For example, I’ve been told in jest that the vychodňari (people of Eastern Slovakia) are of a different mind than the rest of the people of Slovakia and that Asia starts at Štrba (a village in central/eastern Slovakia, below the High Tatras, above the Low Tatras, situated along the European Continental Divide). Not only is it not the start of Asia, it’s not even the start of Eastern Europe.

East Moved West

After World War II, Eastern Europe came west, swallowing up much of Central Europe and blurring the borders. That extra blurring of the borders by the aggressively extraterritorial Russians made the borders so blurry that to many, Europe went from analogue to digital – where there was previously much gray began to be perceived as black and white. “The ability to capture the subtle nature of the real world is the advantage of analog techniques.”  The analogue nature of life, and especially the analogue nature of the polyglot land called Central Europe was lost in the power struggle between the two world empires – the Eurasian USSR and the North American USA. In this more digital, this more binary model, you were either West or East. Many outsiders saw it as being either “for us” or “against us.” And it didn’t really matter who the “us” was, much of the world saw that clear digital division.  When you’re talking about borders its important to remember how blurry borders can be.

Blurry Political Borders

The exception to that is on political maps where borders are very clearly drawn in all but the most extreme situations. Where’s the border between Sudan and Egypt? Nobody knows, but if you’re a westerner and get too close to it you’ll find out pretty quickly. There have been problems with Sudanese zooming across in jeeps and abducting tourists in that borderland. Interestingly, Bir Tawil, a slice of land along that same border, is “terra nullius” – land claimed by no government. Neither Khartoum nor Cairo want it.

How about the border between Algeria and Morocco – the Sahara desert moves around in big sand dunes so without GPS it can be hard to know where the border is when you’re on the ground. And for that matter, does it really matter anyway?  When you are in the middle of the Sahara, in remote areas, does any government care which side of its border you are on today.  Part of the border in fact is not even agreed upon by the two nations.

The UN recognizes several lines where Israel’s eastern border could possibly be drawn – for example, 1. there’s the 1948 borders, 2. the 1949 borders, 3. the 1967 border, 4. there’s the place the Israeli govt said they’d build the wall, 5. there’s the place the wall actually is being built. I once went through a very intensive “interview” in Israel for having a UN map with those last three borders with me. I honestly didn’t see the great importance of that map, because I understand that governments at the end of the day have limited relevance and the borders agreed to by those governments also have limited relevance.

Blurry Cultural Borders

There is an internationally recognized political border between Slovakia and Hungary. The cultural realities of that border are very different. Ethnic Hungarians comprise the majority of the population for many miles north of that border.

Many borderlands tend to have some level of permeability and over the years the political borders may also shift back and forth.The borderlands shared by the US and Mexico will look very different by the end of the century. The question in dispute is whether it will only be a shift in cultural borders or if it will also be a shift in political borders. The cultural borders will surely have moved, few can deny that.

George Friedman in his book The Next 100 Years (Amazon Link) goes so far as to argue that the political borders between the two countries may also be very different and hotly contested by the two nations in war. Morris and Linda Tannehill authors of the book The Market for Liberty would likely entertain the argument that there may not even be nation-states 100 years from now. Borders are a temporary thing often with multiple definitions.

One definition would put Slovakia in Central Europe because of its historical connection to the Church of Rome through Roman Catholicism and arguably through Protestantism, sort of a “Roman Catholicism 2.0″ from the perspective of the early Protestant theologians. By some definitions Eastern Europe starts where the connection to the Byzantine church begins.

On the eastern boundary of Slovakia, there is a gradual cultural shift, like with any good borderland. The tribe of the ethnic Slovaks gradually meld into a tribe of the ethnic Lemkos who gradually meld into the tribe of the ethnic Ukrainians.  While there may be a cultural border between the Slovaks and the Lemkos, there is no political border that walls off the Lemkos from the Slovaks or Ukrainians.  The cultural border is very hard to define and very subjective.  The political border is an issue that is internationally agreed upon.

The Breadbasket of Europe

To add confusion, the culture of eastern Ukraine differs from western Ukraine and many young Ukrainians aren’t really able to answer what one might think is a relatively simple cultural question like: “Do you feel Ukrainian or do you feel Russian?” Or even a simple question of language like “Is that a Ukrainian word you just used or a Russian word?”  Russians have so thoroughly dominated Ukrainian culture and society for so long that these seemingly simple questions pose a problem for many young Ukrainian citizens to answer simply.

Russian strategists have long understood that by blurring any cultural distinction between Russia and the Ukraine, that the Ukraine, “the breadbasket of Europe,” with its southern warm weather ports, vast fertile land, and bountiful natural resources would long be subject to Russian domination.

The Script of the East - ДЕ СКРИПТ АФ ДЕ ИСТ

As you move to the eastern portion of Slovakia, you begin to see the script of the east, what we call “Cyrillic” in English but which a Slovak might consider an incorrect word for the “azbuka” that is used. The script of the west is Latin. The Slovak language uses the letters of Rome. The Slovak language could just as easily use the letters of the East since the characters and sounds of the Slovak language correspond so perfectly.

Traveling into the Lemko lands you enter into a place that feels exotic, one reason it feels so is simply the shift in alphabet. Culturally, no great shift has taken place along your journey, but the different alphabet slaps you in the face and suddenly evokes the traveler within. One day in these pages I’ll post a tutorial on how you can learn Cyrillic in about 10 minutes. Doing so opens a whole new world for you as a traveler and as a human.

That’s for another day.

The Lemko People By Any Other Name

The Lemko people are a stateless people. I felt great pride that eastern Czechoslovakia was once a place with a very strong Lemko concentration. After WWII that changed as Russia gobbled up the land called “Sub-Carpathian Rus.” Outsiders didn’t really notice – “Russia gobbled up Rus. So what? Weren’t they the same place already?”

The two places could not feel more different to me. So many Russians I’ve encountered have a desire for a great leader to subjugate them and in doing so to make them believe they are subjugated by a powerful and glorious government.  Being part of something powerful and glorious makes the subjugation worth it.  They are proud and imperialistic. They are a land of conquerors.

The Lemkos tend to be the salt of the earth. Hard working people with strong values. They want to be left alone. They are not conquers. In fact they might not even be defenders. They honestly want to be left alone.

They call themselves a variety of names, some of which can be disputed as being the same thing or not being the same thing. For the purpose of this article, I will treat all these names as synonymous.  Lemko, Rusyn, Boyko, Hutsul, Rusnak, Lyshaks, Ruthenians, Carpatho-Russians, Carpatho-Ukrainians, Rusyn, Ruthenes, Rusniak, Lemak, they might even call themselves Gurals sometimes.

I used Lemko up to this point in the essay to avoid confusion, since it is such a distinct word that is hard to confuse with any other European ethnic groups. Rusyn is my preferred term to use when I am speaking English, because I find it to be a very dignified and easy to pronounce term in English discussion, Rusňak is my preferred word to use in Slovak discussion for the same reasons and because it seems to be understood by Slovaks.

Between the wars, WWI and WWII,  life was said to be more culturally liberal in Czechoslovakia than it was in – Ukraine, Poland, or Romania.  This would arguably have allowed the Rusyns some room to breathe culturally. Surely, there are Rusyns reading this who will disagree (and I hope you would take a few moments to comment in the comments section if you are among them).  After WWII that seems to be the case as well, as Slovakia remains the area with the largest officially recognized Lemko / Rusyn population of any place where this tribe of people have a traditional homeland.

Resettlement 

Further dissolution of the Rusyn communities occurred after World War II, in some countries, when the Rusyn people were scrambled around in a series of forced population shifts. German (and other ethnic) colonists were chased from lands that had historically been home to their families, for hundreds of years in some cases.  Rusyns, and others, were moved into some of the vacuums left by the Germans who were forced out of their homes.

These post WWII population shifts were such a sad time in the history of the region, partly because it proved that no lessons had been learned from the population shifts of earlier that decade that led to the Holocaust.

When fundamental civil liberties are violated there a slippery slope is formed.  As far as much of Europe was concerned, Hitler simply wanted to resettle Jews into an area in Southern Poland.  To some this may have even been an idyllic vision to have a strong “concentration” of an ethnic group in one location.  In fact, there may have been Jews who once lauded an idea.  However, the notion of taking a person out of his home forcibly or by threat of force is fundamentally wrong.  It’s a violation of fundamental property rights and fundamental human rights.  Small violations inevitably lead to greater violations.

Concentration camps were named concentration camps because they were publicly spoken of as a method of resettlement, a method of concentrating an ethnic population.  When we begin down that course of violating fundamental human rights, it is not hard to watch a government commit even more horrific crimes.  The Holocaust is one example of this, the 20th century sadly, was the century of mass crimes committed on people by governments.

Rusyn culture was easy to push around after World War II.  They had no land, they had minimal political representation.  Had individual Rusyns voluntarily been resettled I would feel better about what happened.  That’s not how it happened though.  Good people were forced from their homes and communities were torn apart.  Concentration camps used by the German military during WWII were now being used internally by the Polish military for resettlement operations.

The lesson learned from World War II was not that it was wrong to treat humans in an inhumane way, but that it mattered only who you treated in an inhumane way.  As some Rusyn communities were chipped away at, weakened, and even destroyed by the Polish and Soviet governments after WWII the world became a little more generic.  As the Jews were murdered in World War II, as the political dissidents were shot in the street, as the Gypsies were killed in camps, the world became a little more generic.

The Rusyns were another example of government overstretching its limits and causing great suffering for many people.  Operation Vistula, “Akcja Wisła” in Polish, is the name for one of these  seldom mentioned story of human suffering after WWII.  It’s one of the many examples of democide from the 20th century.  Democide is “murder by government,” and is explained in depth at this University of Hawaii website on the topic. The 20th century was the era of grand governments and those governments brought death and human suffering on previously unknown scales.

To use the analogies of John Donne, “pieces” of the world were lost throughout the last century at the hands of government killers.

“…every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were;  any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind…”

- John Donne, Meditation 17

The Rusyn people were among those caught up in that suffering.  Based on the estimated numbers of self-identified Rusyns alive in the world today, I speculate that the Rusyns are a tribe that will not see the end of this century.  They have made it this far through human history, only to vanish, to blend into their surroundings, a group so successfully harmed by post World War II ethnic cleansing that their future seems stark.  About that, I hope I am wrong. I like the Rusyn people who I have met and I appreciate a world filled with diversity of culture and perspective.

Today Slovakia continues to have a noticeable Rusyn population, arguably the largest in the world. The Ukraine after years of not identifying this ethnic group doesn’t really have an accurate count of who is Rusyn within the Ukrainian borders.  The Soviets didn’t like ethnic identity (unless it momentarily benefited the government and the Party to play the ethnic identity card) and the Ukraine has in many ways continued that trend.

What’s Any of This Have to Do With Easter?

The Christian Church in general terms can be divided into Greek and Latin, which eliminates some other debates of theological significance and marginalizes some Christians who do not fall within that dichotomy.  I hope the reader will forgive me for the momentary oversimplification of Christian religious beliefs.  Rusyns tend to fall on the Greek/Eastern side of this divide.  They tend to be some form of Orthodox Christian or Eastern rite or Byzantine rite Catholics, such as members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Slovak Greek Catholic Church, or Ruthenian Catholic Church. Some Rusyns are Roman Catholic too (afterall, some Rusyns live in Poland, and is there anyone in Poland who isn’t Roman Catholic?) in addition to other religions and denominations not mentioned here.

As a result of these Eastern and Western celebrations among these people who live on the boundary between East and West, Easter may fall on several days for Rusyns.  It may be a Gregorian Easter, a Julian Easter, or both.

Computus

Today many of the Eastern churches celebrate Easter. They will read from Old Church Slavonic or other old languages and might even read in Greek, the original language of the New Testament.

It’s Easter because the Eastern church calculates Easter according to the older Julian calendar. Whereas the Western church uses the more modern (1582) Gregorian calendar. Separated by the Great Schism of 1054, Christian’s today have more than one Easter. Some years these dates vary widely. In 2013, for example, Easter was celebrated in March in the Western church and in May in the Eastern church. In 2014 the two celebrations of Easters will fall on the same day.

The process of calculating the date of Eater is called “computus” in the West and computus works as follows:

After the First Council of Nicea (325 A.D.), the date for Easter was no longer based on Jewish methods of calculating the date of Passover.  Eventually, it was determined that Easter would fall on the Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after the spring equinox (March 21).  1583 was the first Easter that the Gregorian calendar was put to use by the Roman Catholic Church. Gradually, Western churches have come around to using the Gregorian calendar to calculate the spring equinox, while the Eastern church has continued to use the Julian calendar to calculate the spring equinox, and ultimately the date of Easter.  The Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar so that May 5, 2013 Gregorian is April 22, 2013 Julian.

Numerous algorithms exist for calculating this date, but instead of worrying about the algorithms I just like to Google it. Here’s a chart of dates for comparison.

Dates for Easter
1982–2022
In Gregorian dates

Year        Western        Eastern
1982        April 11        April 18
1983        April 3          May 8
1984           —   April 22  —-
1985        April 7         April 14
1986        March 30   May 4
1987           —  April 19  —
1988        April 3         April 10
1989        March 26   April 30
1990           —  April 15  —
1991        March 31    April 7
1992        April 19      April 26
1993        April 11      April 18
1994        April 3        May 1
1995        April 16       April 23
1996        April 7         April 14
1997       March 30    April 27
1998        April 12       April 19
1999        April 4         April 11
2000       April 23     April 30
2001           —  April 15  —
2002       March 31   May 5
2003       April 20     April 27
2004           —  April 11  —
2005       March 27   May 1
2006       April 16      April 23
2007           —  April 8  —
2008       March 23    April 27
2009       April 12       April 19
2010           —  April 4  —
2011            —  April 24  —
2012        April 8          April 15
2013        March 31      May 5
2014            —  April 20  —
2015        April 5            April 12
2016        March 27      May 1
2017           —  April 16  —
2018        April 1            April 8
2019        April 21         April 28
2020       April 12         April 19
2021        April 4           May 2

Today is Easter Sunday for some in Eastern Slovakia. The East is where hrudka is made and where baskets are blessed. It is where Warhol is from, it has the best ice cream in Slovakia, it contains my favorite hiking place bar none, a spot of unparalleled beauty, and it hosts an exotic borderland, which currently doubles as the Eastern border of the European Union as well.

In Slovakia, a land that provides me with endless joy and surprise, the eastern part of the country provides me with a little more adventure when it is adventure I seek. The land of the Rusyns in Slovakia is a pleasure to travel through – the devout lands of the East, the borderland with Eastern Europe.

The religious aspect is only grazing the surface of the Rusyn people. Without a state, it’s easy to pretend that the Rusyns, the Lemkos are a people with no history. It’s made easier by the fact that they have no single unifying name in the international language of English, only a series of names. The importance of a name in this part of the world has been dealt with before in the pages of 52 Weeks in Slovakia.

Why After 2 Generations in the US,  The Definition of Rusyn is Often Lost

Honestly, for how many generations can a discussion like this take place before it’s abbreviated and eventually forgotten?

Person 1: “Where do your ancestors come from?”
Person 2: “Near the borders of present-day Poland, Ukraine, and Slovakia, just below the Carpathian mountains in a land that has switched hands about 15 times over the last 200 years.”

Person 1: “What language did they speak?”
Person 2: “They were in a border land so really they each spoke 4 or 5 languages pretty fluently from the time they were children. The language they spoke at home is considered by some to be uncodified and has many names. Others would consider the codification to have taken place officially on January 27, 1995  in Slovakia as the Lemko/Rusyn language”

Person 1: “Oh, so they are Slovaks?”
Person 2: “No.”

Person 1: “Serbs?”
Person 2: “No.”

Person 1: “Slovenians?”
Person 2: “No.”

Person 1: “Czechs?”
Person 2: “No.”

Person 1: “So why did they codify the language in Czechoslovakia?”
Person 2: “Because many of them live in present-day Slovakia.”

Person 1: “So they are Slovaks?”
Person 2: “Ethnically, no they aren’t Slovaks.  But many of them do have Slovak citizenship.  Just like ethnically you are half Japanese, one quarter Swedish, and one quarter Columbian, but you have US citizenship.”

Person 1: “So they are a mix?”
Person 2: “No, that’s not what I mean.  My whole family is 100%.”

Person 1: “So, what kind of people are they? What are they called?
Person 2: “My grandma calls us Lemkos, my grandpa calls us Rusyns.”

Person 1: “Oh Russian. Ok.”
Person 2: “No, not Russian. Rusyn. It’s a totally different group of people.”

A generation of two and that answer of where are you from gets shortened to “Vienna, Austria,” because one great grandfather listed that as a city he had been in on his travel declaration through Ellis Island since he assumed (correctly) that Medzilaborce would not be a familiar city name.  Vienna is a city that sounds familiar enough that most Americans in the 21st century can at least pretend to have heard of it.

To further add confusion, if someone says “Russian,” to a Rusyn, the person can legitimately say “Yes, we are Carpathian Russians.” Such a distinction can easily be lost over the years, to the great pleasure of the often imperialistic Russians.

This is part of the complex plight of the people of the Lemko nation, the Rusyn nation, the nameless fantastic nation that lives along the Slovak, Ukrainian, Polish borderlands. Happy Easter to that nation.

With 11 years of studying Slovakia, this essay is a collection of information on the Rusyns.  I am by no means an expert on the topic, but I know more than a huge percentage of people out there, enough to present myself as an expert by attempting a piece like this.  Now, I hope that the real experts will speak up and help to fill in some of the the blanks, and perhaps help me correct some of my errors or oversights.  The real experts are the people who live among Rusyns, are Rusyns living in their native land or some form of Rusyn immigrant, perhaps Rusyn-American or Rusyn-Canadian.  You have the floor, please make use of the comments section!

Allan Stevo writes on Slovak culture at www.52inSk.com. He is from Chicago and spends most of his time travelling Europe and writing. You can find more of his writing at www.AllanStevo.com. If you enjoyed this post, please use the buttons below to like it on Facebook or to share it with your friends by email. You can sign up for emails on Slovak culture from 52 Weeks in Slovakia by clicking here.

Ramps

May 5, 2013

Allan Stevo

One of my favorite delicacy from Slovakia starts to shoot out of the earth at this time of year. Then they disappears as quickly as they came. Some areas of forest fill with them and correspondingly some of the markets fill with them.

They are an almost flimsy, green leaf that taste deliciously like a gentle bite of lightly sautéed garlic, one of the first vegetables to appear in the spring, these plants with a delicate green leaf have a surprisingly pronounced taste.  In the U.S. they are called “ramps.”

My favorite dish to prepare with them is a sandwich –  leftover meat sliced thin, a flavourful dressing, some hard crusted artisanal Slovak bread, and  a generous portion of the greens of ramps. It makes the best sandwich I’ve ever had in my life. Garlicky deliciousness in ever bite. Or as chef David Meyers describes the taste: “like an intense, pungent onion flavor mixed with the forest.”

The writers at the Gothamist love ramps and keep track of when they come into season – because as any Slovak knows, you only get a few good weeks and then you need to wait until next year to taste the almost weightless leaf that carries such flavor.

Chef Amanda Cohen refers to ramps as “the God of All Vegetables
whose coming is greeted every spring with hosannas and hymns.” Elizabeth Banks refers to them as “the hottest vegetable in NYC.” Time magazine comments that “the Church of the Ramp is one of the fastest-growing denominations in the religion of seasonality.”

This exiting delicacy foraged from the woods for a few weeks each spring is not given its due with a boring, nondescript name like “ramps.” Bumps, dumps, damp, tap. These aren’t exciting words and neither is ramps.

You practically have to snatch this woodland delicacy from the mouth of bears to get them in some locales. This lends credence to the Slovak name of this food enjoyed at least for centuries in America’s Appalachian region and for much longer on the European side of the Atlantic.  Wild boars will root their bulbs from the earth before you get to them if you aren’t vigilant.  The plant, pursued by wild beasts, simply deserves a more exciting name.

Rebranded Foods

The kiwifruit was once known as the Chinese GOOSEBERRY, mahi mahi was called DOLPHIN fish, Chilean sea bass was known as Patagonian TOOTH FISH, orange roughy was known as SLIMEHEAD, the sea urchin (a.k.a. “uni”) was known as WHORE’S EGG, canola (an acronym for “canadian oil low acid”) was known as RAPESEED oil.

Some of those rebrandings have helped us appreciate foods whose names didn’t do them justice. Whore’s egg? rapeseed oil? C’mon, no chance that those foods would receive such positive attention in the U.S. with names like that.

With a language as flexible and adventurous as English can’t we come up with a better name for this curious delicacy from the forest? A better name than ramps?

Some Alternate Names Already in Use

There are many names for two species Allium ursinum and Allium tricoccum that are very similar and are separated by the Atlantic. One is the New World variety, the other the Old World variety.  Botanists may dislike me for grouping these two species together, but because of their similarities (awesome garlicky tasting flimsy green-leaved plants that grow in the forest), I’m going to chunk up and accept the risk of blame from the botany community. A list of names for the species include the following, none of which do the delicacy justice:

• ramp,
• ramps,
• ramsy,
• ramsies,
• ramsey,
• rommy,
• roms,
• ramsons,
• ramsh,
• rame,
• rams,
• ramsden,
• ramson,
• buckrams,
• wild leek,
• wood leek,
• spring onion,
• wild garlic,
• broad-leaved garlic,
• wood garlic,
• or here are names for ramps in 43 other languages.

As I’ve romped through the forests of Slovakia in the spring picking these gentle leaves, I’ve long appreciated the Slovak name, derived from the Latin name. “Medvedí cesnak,” is what I hear Slovaks commonly call it, which translates to “bear’s garlic.” It’s an apropos term and great marketing – “ramps” simply doesn’t hit at the adventurousness required to harvest and savour this forest delicacy, this bear’s garlic. The plant, very hard to cultivate, is after all a wild thing that must be foraged for and deserves an equally wild sounding and adventurous name. Next time I’m at an American farmers market, I’m going to ask around about “bear’s garlic” and see how the term is received.  Won’t you do the same?

Have you come across bear’s garlic in Europe, North America or elsewhere? How did it taste? Did you like it? How was it presented to you?  Is bear’s garlic a better name than ramps? Will you start calling the plant bear’s garlic?

Allan Stevo writes on Slovak culture at www.52inSk.com. He is from Chicago and spends most of his time travelling Europe and writing. You can find more of his writing at www.AllanStevo.com. If you enjoyed this post, please use the buttons below to like it on Facebook or to share it with your friends by email. You can sign up for emails on Slovak culture from 52 Weeks in Slovakia by clicking here.

Chicago Bear’s Garlic

May 5, 2013

Allan Stevo

My native Chicago is believed to have been named for the large number of bear’s garlic growing rampant in the area where the river met the lake, with the name of the city being a corruption of the word used by the local Indians for bear’s garlic. Here’s Henri Joutel writing in 1687:

We arrived at a place which is named Chicagou, which, according to what we learned, has taken its name from the quantity of garlic which grows in this district, in the woods … a species of garlic in quantity which is not entirely like that of France, having its leaf broader and shorter, and is also not so strong, though its taste closely approaches it but is not like the little onions or the onion of France.

The same word was used by the Illinois and Miami tribes for the skunk according to John F. Swenson in this essay about Chicago.  The Potowatami who had later displaced the Miami tribe used the same word – chicago –  for native garlic and wild onion.

The name Chicago is derived from the local Indian word chicagoua for the native garlic plant (not onion) Allium tricoccum. This garlic (in French: ail sauvage) grew in abundance on the south end of Lake Michigan on the wooded banks of the extensive river system which bore the same name, chicagoua. Father Gravier, a thorough student of the local Miami language, introduced the spelling chicagoua, or chicagou8, in the 1690`s, attempting to express the inflection which the Indians gave to the last syllable of the word.

According to research done by Swenson in the 1990′s, Chicago, Illinois is believed to have been a name that developed from the local Indian practice of calling the area by the strong colony of bear’s garlic (Allium tricoccum) that grew there.

Do you have any interesting stories about the history of your town’s name, either proven or simply passed along orally?

Allan Stevo writes on Slovak culture at www.52inSk.com. He is from Chicago and spends most of his time travelling Europe and writing. You can find more of his writing at www.AllanStevo.com. If you enjoyed this post, please use the buttons below to like it on Facebook or to share it with your friends by email. You can sign up for emails on Slovak culture from 52 Weeks in Slovakia by clicking here.

Bear’s Garlic

May 5, 2013

Allan Stevo

Can Bear’s Garlic Kill You?

No.

Some people might confuse it with other plants, such as lily-of-the-valley or autumn crocus, which can be poisonous.  There’s an important difference, however.

Rub the leaves of bear’s garlic before you pick it. It will smell like garlic.  Here’s a little more about plants sometimes mistaken for bear’s garlic:

“Since bear’s garlic has become so popular, many people have tried to collect the plant in the wild. Several cases of poisoning have been reported in recent years, as there are a few toxic plants with roughly similar leaves, particularly lily of the valley (Convallaria majus, Convallariaceae/Asparaginales) and autumn crocus (meadow saffron, naked ladies, Colchicum autumnale, Colchicaceae/Liliales). Both plants do not show even traces of garlic odour, and similarities are in the best case superficial, or even non-existent.

“Lily of the valley contains cardioactive glycosides with physiological effects similar to digitalis, but their concentration in the leaves is comparatively small, and, as a consequence, live-threatening conditions due to poisoning occur but rarely. The situation is different with autumn crocus: All plant parts are rich in colchicine, a highly toxic alkaloid. Colchicine poisoning takes lethal course very often. Autumn crocus flowers have also been confused with saffron flowers by the inexperienced.”

As I started collecting bear’s garlic, I wasn’t sure exactly what to look for and was confused by other, similar looking plants.  The presence of the garlic odor when being rubbed confirms that it is or isn’t bear’s garlic. Be careful not to convince yourself that there might be a slight garlicky odor to the plant you are rubbing.   Bear’s garlic will give off a clear garlicky odor when rubbed.

Allan Stevo writes on Slovak culture at www.52inSk.com. He is from Chicago and spends most of his time travelling Europe and writing. You can find more of his writing at www.AllanStevo.com. If you enjoyed this post, please use the buttons below to like it on Facebook or to share it with your friends by email. You can sign up for emails on Slovak culture from 52 Weeks in Slovakia by clicking here.

Texas

April 21, 2013

Allan Stevo

On a trip through Texas, I noticed a few signs that pointed to an immigration trend. I grew up in urban Chicago where a great deal of Mexican immigrants lived and everyone knew what a taco was. Naturally, everyone also knew what a donut was.

Kolacky, or kolache, was a word that some people knew. It was a word that in a way was a password. If you knew and used that word, you had some arm length relationship to Czechs and Slovaks in the community in Chicago. You might also have identified as Czech or Slovak, though “from Czechoslovakia” or “Bohemian” were more common terms to use. Poles and other Slavs also seemed familiar with the word. I knew not to use the word kolacky around everyone, because I knew that not everyone understood it. It was hardly as universal a word in Chicago as pirogi.

As I drove through Texas, working on a US Congressional campaign, I looked up through the windshield to see a great sign that read “Donuts, Tacos, Kolache.” Then down the street there was another and later another.

One of my passwords from childhood that showed who was in and out of the community was written up there for all to see. Was I in a Czech-friendly enclave in Texas? I turned to the local in the car.

“Hey, Bruce, do you know what a kolacky is?”
“Yeah, everyone knows that.”
“That’s not an American word is it?”
“Well, everyone uses it.”
“Are there lots of immigrants around here who aren’t Mexican?”
“Well, the recent immigrants are mostly Mexican. But you still have these big German communities. Lots of German influence. And the Czechs. The Czechs are everywhere around here.”

Bingo. I had found my answer.

There has been a great deal of Czech migration to parts of Texas. In Pennsylvania I’ve been told repeatedly that a lot of Czechs moved to the areas where there was work in mining and steel. Slovaks and other Slavs were around as well. As far as I can tell there are not many Slovaks in the Czech communities in Texas.

Last week a great explosion took place in West, Texas, not to be confused with West Texas. It was a tragic industrial accident that caused a great deal of destruction. West is a small community dominated by Czech immigrants. Judging by the news reports, and the last names of West residents who were quoted, the community continues to have significant Czech influence. It’s even home to the official Kolache of the Texas State Legislature.

This weekend I wrote about one reason for the traffic surge on 52 Weeks in Slovakia. Another reason is the explosion in the Czech influenced community of West, Texas.

Some came to 52 Weeks in Slovakia because there was an explosion in the Czech community, some others came here because “Czech explosion in Texas” and “Chechen bombing of Boston” had been confused in their heads.

Confusion on the topic is understandable, especially when a sympathetic response is generated. Both are tragedies that have affected lots of good people. A far off land was mentioned in both situations. When a bomb drops, no matter where the country, a terrorist act occurs, an industrial accident takes place, I try to remind myself to react with sympathy.

Wherever there is accidental death, killing of innocent bystanders, and ‘collateral damage’  there are good people killed and hurt, and entire families and communities are affected.

I’ve been to two war zones with Slovaks who lived through American bombs being dropped on them and must always remember no matter how easy it may be to dehumanize in time of war, these are indeed humans that our weapons hit. No matter how easy it is to dehumanize during accidents and terrorist attacks, with so much death and destruction in the media, these are in deed humans affected.

Today in church I will bow my head for those affected by terrorism in Boston and elsewhere, I will bow my head for those affected by industrial accidents in Texas and elsewhere, and for those affected by government bombs – whether those bombs be American or from elsewhere.

Allan Stevo writes on Slovak culture at www.52inSk.com. He is from Chicago and spends most of his time travelling Europe and writing. You can find more of his writing at www.AllanStevo.com. If you enjoyed this post, please use the buttons below to like it on Facebook or to share it with your friends by email. You can sign up for emails on Slovak culture from 52 Weeks in Slovakia by clicking here.

Czechoslovakia Isn’t Chechnya

April 20, 2013

Allan Stevo

I didn’t post a story to 52 Weeks in Slovakia yesterday, I didn’t send an email out, I posted nothing to Facebook, Twitter, or any other social network yet traffic was massively up and newsletter signups surged. That happens sometimes when an article from 52 Weeks in Slovakia gets noticed and posted in a prominent location, sent out to a big list, or picked up by the traditional media.

This traffic surge was a little different, however. All day I was wondering what the heck the deal was and at about 11 pm I figured it out. On Facebook, I found this – a link to a list if tweets that in some way confused Czechoslovakia and Chechnya.

Traffic was spiking so heavily because people were confusing the ethnically Chechen Boston bombing suspects with the no longer existent country of Czechoslovakia.

To help clear up any confusion, below is a little bit about Chechnya, Czechoslovakia, and the Czech Republic.

Chechnya is…

• Muslim, largely Sunni to be specific

• a part of Russia – something that causes a great deal of strife for Russians and Chechens, since Chechnya has a very active separatist movement.

• 6,680 sq mi in size and was established in its current form January 11, 1991.

• located in the Caucasus region of Eastern Europe. The Caucasus Mountains form a borderland, with Europe to the North and Asia to the south. This region is at the northern edges of Turkey and Iran and the southern edge of Russia. Many languages and cultures converge there and there is frequent conflict.

• 1,268,989 people strong (as of 2010) with Grozny as a capital city

• is overwhelmingly ethnically Chechen by population, with a few Russians, Armenians, and others hanging around

• is oil-rich, mineral wealthy, and important in Russia’s energy infrastructure. Also of tremendous importance is that Chechnya is significant in holding together Russia’s southern border. If Chechnya seceded from Russia, so goes a commonly held theory stated by the Kremlin, perhaps others in the Caucasus would follow. It cannot be overstated that Chechnya is constantly in a state of conflict with Moscow – sometimes legal, sometimes political, sometimes military.

The Czech Republic is…

• largely Atheist or non-religious

• geographically located at the very heart of Europe

• a country that  came into being on January 1, 1993

• a country that in 1991  had a population of 10,302,215 and in 2011 a population of 10,436,560, which is not that impressive of a growth rate.

• 30,450 sq mi in size and despite being the birthplace of Semtex plastic explosives it is a peaceful place that knows little of war and the most dramatic conflicts to have happened over the last 20 years involve two 50 year olds arguing about literature over beer in a bar at 11 pm.

• The Czech capital city of Prague, incorrectly considered by many to be “Eastern Europe,” is far to the West of the German capital of Berlin.

Czechoslovakia was…

• a state that came into existence 28 October 1918 and ceased existing the night of 31 Dec 1992.

• located in the very heart of Europe.

• made up largely of Czechs and Germans as well as Slovaks, Roma, Hungarians, Ruthenians, Jews, Poles, Vietnamese (a later addition to the mix), in addition to other ethnic minorities.

• a country with a tradition of  notable Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and atheist/non-religious influence along with other religious groups.

• after 1948, under monopoly political control of the Communist party, who essentially ran the country as a satellite of the Kremlin.

• in Central Europe, with Prague as a capital city, which is several hours by car or train to the north and west of Vienna, Austria.

• 13,607,385 strong in 1921 and in 1993, at the time of dissolution was estimated to be 15,600,000 strong (12 times the size of present-day Chechnya)

• 54,227 sq mi in size in 1921 which was whittled away at over the years until in 1993 it was 49,382 sq mi (7 times the size of present-day Chechnya)

As a final note, I would like to reaffirm the important statement that there has been no such place as Czechoslovakia for over two decades. Maybe we need to better challenge a few trends in our society if we are calling authoritatively for the bombing of countries that don’t even exist.

Any thoughts? Please feel free to share this link with friends who might be interested in the topic, yet might be confused about the Czechoslovakia as opposed to Chechnya.

Allan Stevo writes on Slovak culture at www.52inSk.com. He is from Chicago and spends most of his time travelling Europe and writing. You can find more of his writing at www.AllanStevo.com. If you enjoyed this post, please use the buttons below to like it on Facebook or to share it with your friends by email. You can sign up for emails on Slovak culture from 52 Weeks in Slovakia by clicking here.