Prague's National Museum to celebrate May Day with fountain light show

On the first day of May, Prague’s National Museum is inviting visitors to exchange a customary May-Day kiss by the reconstructed fountain in front of its Historic Building followed by a light-show spectacular later in the evening.

According to a press release from the museum, “On May 1, 2019, at 9:00 pm, the National Museum fountain will shine with colors for the first time in history.”

The three-minute sequence will be displayed at half-hour intervals through the end of October.

Tomorrow’s visitors to the museum will also get the rare chance to peek at the whale skeleton, one of the largest exhibits of cetaceans in Europe, which is currently being restored and repaired.

Free admission to other Prague National Museum buildings will now be included in the price of the Historic Building ticket from the first day of May, with visitors receiving a 5-day free pass to the museum’s other buildings.

Those buildings include: the New Building of the National Museum, Náprstek’s Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures, Czech Museum of Music, The Ethnographic Museum of the National Museum, The National Memorial at Vítkov, The National Museum Lapidarium, Antonín Dvořák Museum, and Bedřich Smetana Museum.

The fountain was completed on August 29, 1890, its author likely sculptor Bohuslav Schnirch; the cast was made in 1890 by Vaclav Masek.

Other traditional May Day events in Prague include a kissing session by the Karel Hynek Mácha statue at Petřin Hill.