Litomysl celebrates 51st annual summer festival Sunday

Holy Trinity Catholic Church of Litomysl will be showing off its country church pride at the 51st Annual Summer Festival on Sunday, July 30.
The 170 families of the parish will host the event which is one of the largest summer parish festivals held in Minnesota each year. The country style festival draws people from all over.
Holy Trinity Church dates back to 1878, when settlers in the Litomysl community built their first church. The community is actually named after the original Litomysl, located about 100 miles east of Prague.
In 1940-41, they built the stone church that parishioners worship in today. It is one of the largest stone churches in the nation; members of the parish brought over 600 loads of rock from their fields to build it.
Czech traditions, from delightful pastries to polka music, will be alive and well once again in Litomysl, south of Owatonna, where can you combine Mass, music, games, silent auction, eats and treats, a used a bit sale, face painting, live pony rides, raffles, pull tabs, and wagon rides. You may not be able to find Litomysl on a map, but miles and miles of motor vehicles will line County Road 4 and 24th Avenue Southeast in rural Owatonna for the annual Litomysl Summer Festival.
At 10:15 a.m. in the air conditioned, handicapped accessible, Holy Trinity Church, there is the traditional Polka Mass that has participants sing traditional hymns to the beat of polka music, led by the Litomyslaneous Polka Group. Also participating in the morning Mass will be the Owatonna Knights of Columbus #945’s Fourth Degree in full regalia.
Music will echo throughout the grounds. The “Dan Stursa Band” and the Gary Brueggen Family Band from Wisconsin?will entertain the crowd when they grace the stage north of the church. The Klecker Band, who have played at all of the past 50 Festivals, will delight listeners on the south side of the church. Hans Hohrman will be playing by the Parish Center.
The Festival brings several thousand people to one small spot in Steele County for fundraising, music, food, games and perhaps most importantly, fellowship. The Litomysl Summer Festival is always held on the last Sunday in July. People come from all over as they look forward to this as something fun to do every year.
The Czech and non-Czech community alike can look forward to activities. By 11 a.m. all outdoor activities begin with many food booths available to delight anyone’s appetite. Festivalgoers won’t leave hungry, as the Holy Trinity community will be stocked with pork rib sandwiches, pork burgers, brats, hot dogs, walking tacos, root beer floats and refreshments to quench the thirst of all ages.
In the air-conditioned church basement, pie and ice cream and filled biscuits will be available, as well as a place to sit and relax.
Everyone will have the opportunity to view the old gas engines and water pump action between the school and the garage.
In the St Isidore Parish Center, there will be a Silent Auction, along with a used-a-bit sale, with bargains galore. A country store with garden produce will be by the church.
People of all ages will be eager to await their turn to partake in the many games they choose from plinko, bingo, spin the wheel, fish pond, dime toss and the ever popular root beer barrel game. As has been the case in years past, many local businesses and individuals have donated thousands of items to be used for prizes in the games. Thousands of items have also been donated for the used-a-bit sale in the Parish Center and for the Silent Auction. The annual “Big Ticket” raffle, will feature prizes valued at more than $6,000, including the first three prizes of $500. The drawing will be at 4 p.m. north of the church.
The ladies of the parish will make many, many dozen prune, poppyseed and apricot biscuits (or “buchty” in Czech). They will go on sale at 11 a.m. in the church basement. Buchty, is a traditional Czech biscuit filled with prunes, apricots, or poppy seed. The women make sweet yeast dough, roll it out, cut it into small squares and fill the squares with prune, poppy seed or apricot filling. The corners of the square of dough are lifted up kitty-corner and folded in the middle and dough is pinched together. The dough has four eyes on top with the filling peeping out: these eyes are called the four eyes of God.
A tractor pulling a tram will help people get to the Festival more quickly, when they park their cars on the roads surrounding Litomysl.
For more information go to www.litomysl.webs.com.
Litomysl is located at 9946 24th Ave. SE, Owatonna.
Litomysl Summer Festival
Who: Holy Trinity Catholic Church
What: 51st annual festival
Where: 9946 24th Ave. SE, Owatonna
When: Sunday, July 30, 10:15 a.m.
More info: www.litomysl.webs.com