The extreme gravity of the funeral ceremonies in the Czech Republic is due to the diffusion of the biblical models in all the sections of the population. A definitive shift between the traditional european way of celebrating death of a relative and the Christian tradition seems to have occured at the end of the nineteenth century. If it is true that the majority of Czech funerals end with the cremation of the body (a process originally refused by the Catholic Church), it is also true that the funeral ceremony at the present day fully accomplishes the principle of severity provided by the Bible. Today most of the Czech funeral ceremonies consist mainly in listening to pieces of music recommended by the management of crematories. A less controlled (and probably more natural) expression of mouming seems to be almost extinct in the culture of the Czech majority.
Presented article analyzes oral narratives usually defined as contemporary (urban) legends with emphasis on their main characteristics as a folklore genre. The article focuses on definition, terminology and presentation of history of International and Czech research of contemporary legends along with examples of local contemporary narratives. Czech contemporary legends can be characterized as showing clear parallels with East European as well as global folklore repertoire. The most popular Czech cautionary legend was legendary “Black Ambulance”, narrative about mysterious black ambulance kidnapping children, current mainly in 1988 and 1989. Widespread is corpus of comical narratives (“Hilarious Accidents”), in Czech oral transmission popular at least from the 1960s. Narratives showing clear parallels with traditional Czech folklore are relatively lacking in the contemporary Czech repertoire - single exception being cycle of legends about undead Nazi soldier Hagen, popular in tramping movement since the 1980s. Czech contemporary xenophobic narratives deals mainly with Romani (Gypsy) people, “Chinese Restaurant Legends” from global repertoire and anti-Turkish legends from repertoire of German-speaking countries. Newer narratives current from the end of the 1990s show more parallels with international contemporary legends.