Mass and bells above Prague
Prague bells will be ringing in Prague on Saturday at 12 noon and also on Friday 16th April, when the new Czech Archbishop Dominik Duka will serve a requiem mass in St Vitus Cathedral. Flags will be lowered on both days on all public buildings, and citizens should express their solidarity with a minute of silence on Saturday afternoon. Mourning flags will fly also in Czech parishes, and the day of mourning will be joined by all Czech dioceses.
The Friday mourning ceremony should be attended by Czech President Václav Klaus, Czech PM Jan Fischer and Polish ambassador Jan Pastwa. The whole ceremony will be broadcast live by Czech television on the programme ČT 2.
Minute of silence
The organisers of many cultural, sporting and other events will also honour the victims either with a minute of silence or with a speech; a few of them decided to change the dates of their events. Czech television decided to change its Saturday programme for the weekend. The channel ČT24 is preparing a special programme about the Polish tragedy, while ČT1 will broadcast a movie Katyň made by director Andrzej Wajda. The Czech cabinet also appealed to citizens to express their solidarity by holding a minute of silence on Saturday at noon. Visitors to cultural events in Prague, mainly Prague theatres, will honour the victims with a minute of silence also.
