At first glance it may seem that events like this are based only on wearing historical clothes for a few hours and posing in front of cameras. However, it’s much deeper, than it seems. People like these are either real fans of history and historical reenactments or a bit dreamers who’d like to spent a few hours in their dream world wearing lovely clothes and pretending to live in an another century. I’m not sure I belong to one of these groups, I’m rather an observer, or a mix of these two types.
My first acquaintance with Jane Austen’s books and the Empire style took place in 2008 when I was working as a florist in a local flower shop. And suddenly I decided to buy one of the Jane Austen’s book, and it was “Emma”. It is hard to say now why it was “Emma” and not “Pride and Prejudice” given I knew the second one was the most popular book of the author. But I loved it. The last pages of the book was the hardest to read, I just didn’t want this story to end. But fortunately there were another few books ahead and I bought all of them. The world of carriages, english parks, cottages, crushes and my favourite characters changed my young adult period.
Some months later I started learning English by myself, though I thought my future is tightly connected with German language (since I’ve learned it for many years), but I’ve never actually liked it as much as the language of Shakespeare (it’s embarrassing to admit, but now I don’t even remember all those things we were studying at school/university). I was happy that new skills started to help me to understand the stories and to watch BBC movies, and still it wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to go there, wanted to see modern and old England, to travel all over the country and to participate the Jane Austen Festival in Bath.
But then I moved to Czech Republic and Czech language became my №1 goal, that shifted my old plans for a couple of years. I had forgotten about my sentimental dreams, until I had discovered that there are people in Brno who organize dance events for Jane Austen’s fans. I didn’t expect that I’d find something I dreamed of here in Brno. And I’m so grateful to these wonderful people, I think their job is absolutely amazing. And I hope there will be even more people who might like to join them and participate their upcoming events.
Jane Austen club’s websites: Facebook, Website. Join them too!
In this post I’d like to show you how the Empire day in Olomouc looked like in 2016. As for my old dreams…now they are even more strong and became plans. See you in my next notes, lads and lasses ❤️
Dina
