Hannah Geiger (X) Dec 12, 2015:

A toast to vile puns and the clandestine Anglo-Saxon abhorrence of
the inferior plebeian environs.

Stuart Hoskins Dec 12, 2015:

M'lady.

Isabel Stainsby (asker) Dec 12, 2015:

Thanks to all of you for your input; I was indeed looking for first-hand experience but the links were very helpful, especially Hannah's, so I've given the points to her. However I also want to give some kudos to Stuart for a truly vile pun that I would have been proud to perpetrate myself and which I must try and work in. Were I wearing a hat I would tip it to you, sir.

Hannah Geiger (X) Dec 11, 2015:

yes, I understand. I liked the first link I had posted, because it touches upon some of the issues your are pointing out.
YouTube has lots and lots of reenactments and school plays

Stuart Hoskins Dec 11, 2015:

In most cases where the ceremony does occur, Googling indicates that it is a 20th-century revival (and, in some villages, I would imagine an invention), so I was interested in seeing what these modern versions involved and whether they really stuck to the (generally) lost tradition. I also wanted to put this into the context of the forest water cycle, so wondered whether, at a time when the ceremony (of which I could find no first-hand evidence of in our particular neck of the woods) had dwindled, there was at least some community tradition of cleaning up the forests (of which evidence does exist).

Hannah Geiger (X) Dec 11, 2015:

well, this really goes back centuries. I know that you might perhaps be happier with the "cleaning of the springs" (and indeed it would make more sense, technically) but I suppose one really has to open them first :) http://www.nulk.cz/files/knihovna/Letnicni_zvyky_a_obyceje.p...

Stuart Hoskins Dec 11, 2015:

Thanks, Hannah. I thought Isabel might be trying to look beyond Google by fishing for first-hand experience (which I was ultimately unable to provide).

Hannah Geiger (X) Dec 10, 2015:

see the first link in my answer please http://www.ireceptar.cz/zajimavosti/tipy-na-vylet/otvirani-s...

Stuart Hoskins Dec 10, 2015:

Here’s a brief description of the traditional ceremony:
http://www.ceske-tradice.cz/tradice/jaro/letnice/otevirani-s...
Googling "otevírání studánek" brings up a list of how all the various villages organise the event. Some treat it as an opportunity for environmental awareness, others go back to the (faux?) roots.

Stuart Hoskins Dec 10, 2015:

Hello Isabel, do you mean the revived ceremony with young girls or the actual act of “spring cleaning” (sorry, had to…), when all the springs are cleared of branches and old leaves and (who knows, Papet?) cement? (The ceremony is alien to my wife, a native of the foothills of the Giant Mountains, and I reckon the substance will vary from one place to another where it is held, while the clean-up is not called “otvírání studánek” - at least not in these parts.)