Easter Markets open April 6

Easter markets on Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square and náměstí Republiky will open April 6 and run until April 28. Easter this year falls on April 21 in the western calendar and April 28 on the Orthodox calendar.

Gift stalls and decorations will be open every day from 10 am to 10 pm, and selected refreshment stands until midnight.

The market in Old Town Square will honor traditional Easter motifs, while the one on Wenceslas Square will present a new look and concept.

Main events will take place at the Easter birch and a large stage at Old Town Square, which will be decorated with traditional Easter motifs and cheerful colors. The stalls will have spring motifs and the theme of baby animals.

The viewing bridge resembles a flower chateau, and the square is livened up by blossoming apple trees, boxes with live flowers and two-meter-long wicker eggs.

At the Wenceslas Square market, the organizers carried out a complete redesign of all the sales booths. “Wenceslas Square this year is fresh and modern in the design and character of all the decorative elements. We have newly added to the traditional Easter elements a rich floral decoration with many live flowers and trees,” Jakub Olbert of SOS Dekorace said.

On the Old Town Square stage, there is a program for each day from 4 pm to 7 pm. Visitors can look forward to more than a hundred professional and amateur singing or dancing ensembles and ethnographic or folk groups from various parts of the Czech Republic and abroad.

In thematic areas, visitors will be introduced to folk customs.

“The variety is really great and it will show traditions related to Shrovetide, Ash Wednesday, Easter, the carrying away of [Slavic winter spirit] Morana, the Pentecost, the Ride of the Kings and the like. This makes the program very original,” market program manager Libuše Klinková said. There will also be weekend workshops for children.

On weekends and the Easter holidays, they will additional programs at Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square, where visitors will be able to participate in dances and performances from 4 pm to 6 pm.

The Easter markets will also showcase a new logo It uses traditional spring colors and typical Easter eggs. The author is the creator of the Civic Forum logo, renowned graphic artist and artist Pavel Šťastný. He also made the new logos for the Christmas markets.

The markets will continue to use compostable plates and cutlery, similar to what was used in the Christmas markets. Visitors, though, have to make sure to put the items in the proper trash containers. “Our path in the ecological approach continues. The Christmas markets convinced us of the correctness of this journey and we moved a bit further. We believe that the idea of reducing waste in the markets is also supported by visitors. We want to continue this way, regardless of the high demands of securing the entire process and the associated costs,” Libor Votruba, chairman of the board of directors of market organizer Taiko, said.

The Easter markets support a number of charity projects. People purchase products from the Salet project workshops to help in social need, from Semitam, for people with disabilities and after imprisonment, from Shaman-ka, for socially disadvantaged children, and from the ŽAP Club for women with cancer.

Directly on Old Town Square, there will be a money box to support the project Prague Children, which contributes to children at the oncology department of the University Hospital in Prague - Motol.

More information about the markets can be found at www.trhypraha.cz.