The contribution introduces the theme of research into a traditional Pentecost custom – the Ride of the Kings – in one of the ethnographic areas in the Czech Republic. The text is based on the contributions that became outcomes of international field research in a Czech location. This research was carried out thanks to the initiative of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology. The Group has dealt systematically with fieldwork through the ICTM Sub-Study Group of Field Research Theory and Method, a narrower-aimed study sub-group. The research focused on the traditional custom of the Ride of the Kings in the village of Vlčnov, which was chosen with special respect to the background provided by the inscription of the Ride on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The fact is undoubtedly reflected in how the outside world perceives the Ride and how the Ride is shared by the local community. It provides a space for research on viability and the process of transformations in this traditional expression in contemporary society.
The theoretic study mentions a series of articles that became an output of the international field research, which was initiated by the ICTM Study Group of Ethnochoreology. This study group focuses on the theme of field research within a more specialized ICTM Sub-Study Group of Field Research Theory and Method. The research was aimed at the traditional custom of the Ride of the Kings in Moravian Slovakia, which has been chosen with special reference to the context offered by its inscription on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This issue is projected to the perception of the customs by the surroundings, it is reflected in the way of its future sharing by the local community and it offers the field to research its viability and process of changes within the contemporary society. It is a pilot research that was drafted as an experiment because of the specific, collective, supranational and inter-generational approach and the application of some non-standard procedures consisting in combination of monitoring and interviewing techniques. It was one concrete year of the Ride of the Kings in Vlčnov (2012) that was monitored. The data, which the quantitative research concentrated within the restricted time and space, should especially help formulate next procedures, hypothesis and issues aimed at the research of the importance of the mentioned traditional Pentecost custom within the today’s society.
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