Folk Culture

Part of the series Cultural Heritage of Slovakia is the twelfth book, Folk Culture which too tries to present the history and culture of the country. Slovakia is stunningly rich in material and spiritual folk heritage. It is one of the principal phenomena, which characterizes the nation and the country and represents a significant contribution to European culture. Geography and division of the country along with ethnicities, confessions, migration flows and historic events are the factors that caused unusual diversity and variability of Slovakia’s population which is reflected in its culture.

The country had been since time immemorial the crossroads of West and East of Europe and the fact is evident in the difference between its eastern and western parts. Simultaneously it is located on the dividing line between the lowland and
mountainous geographical areas and this too has left marked traces in the way of life of locals, both in its material and spiritual aspects. The aspiration of this book is to present and document the riches of Slovak folklore. Its aim is to concentrate the specific features of folk culture surviving in individual regions of Slovakia.

Folk Culture is also a bit of guidebook across regions of Slovakia and it attempts to provide as complete picture of our cultural history as possible even before it is visited. Editors hope that the book will meet the set aims and the readers will also become visitors and admirers of Slovakia’s almost forgotten beauties left here by our ancestors.