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Gold ducat K. J. Erben, Kytice - Christmas Eve stand
Personal pickup at the store
The Bouquet
The motif of the final gold ducat of the seven-part cycle inspired by Karel Jaromír Erben's Kytice (Bouquet) is a poem called Christmas Eve.
Human destiny is fixed and we are powerless against its whims. For some, family happiness awaits, for others only suffering, therefore, we should not try to know our future. How to live with the knowledge of impending death? That's what Erben's Christmas ballad is about. Its heroines are two girls who go to the lake at midnight on Christmas Eve, break the ice and look at the surface of the water. According to an old Slavic superstition, the water reveals their future - while Hana sees a groom, Marie sees her own death. Both prophecies - the wedding and the funeral - soon come true and ignorance turns out to be sweet: "Better to dream in false hope, to see pure darkness than to discover the future, to know a terrible certainty!"
The author of the obverse side of the ducat is Mgr. Petr Horák, who was inspired by the depressing atmosphere of Erben's collection when creating the relief. Two girls at a hole in the ice recognize their future - one sees a coffin and a cross and covers her eyes with horror, the other sees a heart and wedding rings and leans down to the water with excitement. The reverse side, created by MgA. Jan Hásko and which is common to the whole series, then presents a rich puget in which a human skull is hidden alongside various flowers.
The ducat is set in a special packaging that includes a complete poem. The collection of seven ducats can then be stored in a collector's box.
