Parade o' the monks

The Czech Republic (or Czechia as it's supposed to be officially called now, though no one here calls it that) is one of the least religious countries in the world. It's about 80% atheist, according to at least one statistic which may or may not be currently accurate, but the percentage of religiosity here in Prague is lower than the national average so in any case, especially in this city it's real low.

Still, there are tons of churches, statues of saints everywhere, and lately I keep seeing monks.

First last week one morning I saw one running for the tram, holding his skirts as he sped along. It was amusing but a small incident, almost not worth writing home about.

Then yesterday, after a sweltering day of 38 degrees, fatigued by doing tours all day, and then getting on the wrong tram, getting on the right one but getting off again because I thought it was the wrong one and luckily realizing it was the right one and getting on and taking a seat, I see this monk in long robes, black ones, in a heavy material, and I sweated just looking at him. Then he got on the tram and sat down beside me and engaged me in conversation.

He talked about his monastery, which is the oldest in Prague and has a restaurant and a brewery, of course. Asked where I was from, I told him Australia and he told me about some Australian woman he knows, we were interrupted by some tourists asking about the ticket system on the trams and he spent some time explaining it in broken English, which I had to correct later because he gave them some innacurate info, and then he took his leave after giving me a gift of a crucifix and a blessing. So the virgin Mary is now watching over me, I think.

And today I saw this.

Some kind of holy (or perhaps not so holy?) ceremony.