You can't make this stuff up

[ritaxis]

The Ride of the Kings  is a folk festival of Moravia whose strangeness cannot be exaggerated.  To begin with, a bunch of young men dress up in fancy costumes and go riding horses to a house in town where they formally request the father of the house for the use of his young son (of early adolescent age) to be their king.  He accepts, the plum brandy is brought out, and everybody drinks and sings and makes jokes.  Meanwhile the boy is dressed in ancient women's costume and a rose stuck in his mouth and he's hoisted up on a horse accompanied by two guys oalso on horseback and also in ancient women's costume carrying drawn sabers.  Then they go riding all around town and the "criers" shout out verses at the people they pass making witty jokes and demanding donations for the drinking party.  The rose, by the way, is supposed to be a symbol of taciturnity.  What?  

Apparently this was once a widespread tradition but it only survives in a few towns now, and is accompanied by every kind of demonstration of folk costume, dancing, and singing.  Many tall wreathy headdresses with ribbons all over the place, and lots of tall heeled boots and embroidered vests.  Seeing as how this is a Bohemian festival, we can also expect lots of beer, probably.

It happens sometime in summer.  Some places do it in May, some do it later.

There is no explanation.  Perhaps it is better this way.

Comments

[frogs_of_war]

That sound like so much fun to watch or participate in. It really makes me wonder where it came from. The whole town looks to be involved.

An author could come up with the oddest tradition they could think of, but it probably still couldn't beat the ones that really exist.

[zeborah]

The Rose makes me think of “sub Rosa” which refers to the Rose on the confessional booth… But that can't be the origin either… Ah, here: various notes on Wikipedia.

[zeborah]

(Random capitalisation thanks to dictation software and me being too lazy to edit.)

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks for the link. I still don't know why the Ride of the Kings emphasizes secrecy, or why the women's clothing, but I think I understand the reason it's a boy who holds the rose. At some point in the evolution of the custom, somebody found out about Harpocrates.