TRADITIONAL FAMILY, GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
The basic, complete family in the Czech Republic is a man, a woman and their children. The extended family in the Czech Republic also includes other relatives – grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. In the traditional Czech family, both partners are usually given public or church marriages, but more and more pairs of unmarried couples have grown in recent years. Especially in the younger generation, families of unmarried couples are promoting partnerships without commitment. In the Czech Republic we can also meet the concept of an incomplete family, where one of the parents is missing.
Economically weaker families fall into the state support system, which consists of: social allowances for low-income parents, housing allowance, child allowance.
The Czech state is trying to support birth rates, which have been decreasing in recent years also by the social contribution paid for childbirth. Its amount is set at CZK 13000, for a multiple birth at CZK 19 500. The Czech pro-family system is also unique in Europe and the world in the economic support of a single parent (mostly mothers but also fathers) with a child home after birthing up to four years of age. The state pays the so-called maternity benefit and parental allowance.
1 / Maternity benefit is paid to the mother for a total of 28 weeks (for two or more simultaneous births for a total of 37 weeks), starting from six to eight weeks before the expected date of delivery. The amount of maternity benefit is directly proportional to previous earnings, but this is reduced and the maximum amount of the benefit is also limited. The child’s father can start maternity leave at the earliest from the 7th week of the child’s age. The average amount is approximately CZK 15 000 (EUR 592).
2 / Parental allowance – a parent who takes care of a child up to 4 years of age is entitled to it – up to a maximum of CZK 220 000 (EUR 8 686).
MARRIAGE, REGISTERED RELATIONSHIP
Marriage on the territory of the Czech Republic can have a form of civil or religious marriage. Non-religious marriages are more common and are a public and ceremonial ceremony, usually closed at the town hall in the presence of two witnesses. In recent years, marriages in unofficial places – in nature, on board, in aircraft, etc. have been growing more and more.
However, the presence of an authorized official and witnesses is a condition. The number of wedding guests in the Czech Republic is usually about 30, but their number may vary considerably. Especially in smaller towns or villages, weddings with 100 guests are not the exception. Bridal guests include parents of brides, brothers and sisters with partners and children, witnesses with partners and children, uncles and aunts, cousins with partners and children, friends, colleagues from work, neighbours.
Wedding guests
Tradition at the wedding: the bride would wear something new on this festive day (new beginning), old (preservation of family tradition), borrowed (to take care of others) and blue (the colour of fidelity). A popular tradition is baking wedding cakes several days before the wedding, which serves as a personal invitation for guests. The bridegroom should not see the bride in the wedding dress before the wedding because it can bring bad luck.
Before the wedding feast, the bridegroom and bride both can clean up the broken plate to show that they can cooperate, and also because the shards bring happiness. The wedding reception always starts with a wedding toast, most often pronounced by a bride’s father or witness.
Cleaning up the broken plate
When the newlyweds sit down at a wedding table, the staff tie around their neck with a large white cloth. They get one spoon and feed each other with soup. It is the traditional symbol of a common life that needs to be shared equally.
Feeding each other with soup
Another of the many traditions at the Czech wedding is the slicing of the wedding cake. Wedding cake is a symbol of fertility. And to keep the marriage, the bride and groom must taste the cake. Another tradition is the first dance. Traditional dance for this occasion was a waltz, but in recent years it is a favourite song for newlyweds. The guests create a circle and gradually engage in the dance.
The wedding circle
Other wedding traditionals
In the Czech Republic, it is possible to close a registered partnership of two same-sex adults (two women or two men), at least one of whom has a Czech nationality. Then partners have right to health information, they have common property, they can inherit in succession … However, they do not have the right to adopt a child or take the child into foster care.
DIVORCE
In the Czech Republic, marriage is not a guarantee of a sacred relationship. Divorce is perceived almost as a norm. In the Czech Republic, over 31 000 couples break out each year, which is about every other marriage. The most common causes of divorce are “difference in nature, opinions, interests” – more than 40%, infidelity is reported in 10%.
Extramarital relationships tend to be frequent and tolerated by society.
CARE FOR AN UNAUTHORIZED CHILD
Adoption of the child – (adoption) is guaranteed by the Czech state. By adoption, the family relationship between the child and his / her original family ceases. Adoption must always meet legal requirements and must lead to the benefit of the child. The condition is the consent of biological parents or legal guardian with adoption.
Adoption is a relatively lengthy process in the Czech Republic. Parents who have applied for the adoption of a child are first subjected to a variety of testing and interviewing, and are also prepared in the form of courses for adoption of the child. They can also express their wishes about the child, such as gender, age, whether they are able to educate a child with disability, another ethnicity, a chronic illness.
Foster care is a form of alternative family care defined by the law on the social and legal protection of children where an individual, spouses or partners have taken into their care and education a child who cannot grow up with their parents. Unlike adoption, however, foster parents are not legal representatives, do not change the birth certificate of a child, do not have parental rights or maintenance obligations, and after completing foster care they are legally strangers. The aim of foster care is mainly to provide family care to a child who would otherwise grow up in a children’s home.
Resources:
1/ Goverment support. Available from: www.czso.cz (2018-02-14)
2/ Care about children. Available from: www.adopce.com (2018-02-14)
3/ Goverment support. Available from: www.duchod.cz (2018-02-14)
4/ Goverment support. Available from: www.cssz.cz (2018-02-14)
5/ Family. Available from: www.svatba.cz (2018-02-14)