 The Czech Republic , and the cultures represented in the lands of former Bohemia and Czechoslovakia have a long tradition regarding <unk> , crèches . The tradition of home Nativity scenes is often traced to the 1782 ban of church and institutional crèches by emperor Joseph II , officially responding to public disturbances and the resulting " loss of dignity " of such displays . As this followed the Edict of Toleration proclaimed the previous year , it reduced State support of the Catholic church in this multi @-@ confessional land . 
