2023-11-25 19:00:00
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From a Western perspective, Eastern Europe was long the Eastern Bloc. The differences are also huge between neighboring countries.
In the indoor swimming pool in Prudnik, a small Polish town on the border with the Czech Republic, there is a sign that says – in Czech: “Guests from the Czech Republic are politely asked to change in the cabins with curtains and not in the open room the clothes lockers.”
The unspectacular sign shows a gap between the Polish and Czech mentality. The Czech people who come to Prudnik to swim because the swimming pool here is closer than the nearest one on the Czech side have a completely different relationship to nudity than the locals.
Naked in front of children?
Czechs naturally show themselves naked in the gender-segregated dressing rooms. Poles find this unseemly. They go into separate cubicles, draw the curtain and only then undress. The Polish belief is that children in particular should not see naked strangers.
Here, no one is shocked when you change clothes in front of children.
In contrast, a young Czech woman said in the local newspaper “Nowa Trybuna Opolska”: “Here, no one is shocked when you change in front of children.”
Legend: Not wearing a bathing suit in the cloakroom is taboo in Poland. Getty Images/Westend61
The different customs in Polish and Czech wardrobes represent a different relationship to religion and morality.
Poland is more Catholic than almost any other country in Europe. Even though the number of believers is decreasing, around three quarters of Poles are still members of the Catholic Church and masses are still full on Sundays. In the Czech Republic, however, seven out of ten residents do not identify with any religious community.
Revolution and religion
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In Poland, the fall of communism is closely linked to the Polish Pope, John Paul II. During his first visit to Poland as pope, he made it clear that he wanted a change in the political situation.
Papal support was also an important reason for the success of Solidanosc. The union became a rallying point for Polish opponents of the regime and won the first free elections in 1989 with an overwhelming majority.
For many in Poland, Catholicism is not only inextricably linked to national identity, but also to the overcoming of communism.
In the Czech Republic, however, many had already said goodbye to the Catholic Church before the Second World War. It was considered a symbol of the defeated Habsburg Empire. The church did not play a significant role in the overthrow of communism in the Czech Republic in 1989.
The end of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992 also divided the country into two parts: Slovakia, where to this day more than half of the population is Roman Catholic, and the Czech Republic, where a majority does not feel they belong to any religion.
This is reflected in the dressing room, but also in politics: where morals and Catholic values are quickly discussed in Poland, the Czechs are proud of their pragmatism.
Sex education classes, for example, are compulsory in Czech schools because children have to learn what sex is like. In Polish schools, however, national conservatives have largely banned talking regarding sex. Children, they argue, should not be spoiled.
There are still no registered partnerships for same-sex couples in Poland, and in the Czech Republic for 17 years.
Not a real block
Abortions are banned in Poland in almost all cases, even if the fetus has no chance of surviving. The Czech Republic has had a deadline solution for decades.
All of this – just like the request to the Czech guests to please keep a low profile in the Polish indoor swimming pool – shows that the countries of Eastern Europe have never been a single block.
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