The sounds of Czech music and the smell of potato pancakes will again fill Cermak Road, as this year’s 39th annual Houby Day Festival focuses on celebrating the old traditions and cultures of the area, while also embracing the new.

In recent years, organizing groups have tried to meld the area’s historic Czech culture with the recent Hispanic influence. This change has come with some resistance of residents, who say the festival has lost its roots and planners have forgotten the point of the festival — the Houby.

“I think it’s been important in the community that we haven’t forgotten about the tradition almost 40 years later — that it’s still about the honoring of the Houby,” said Mary Esther Hernandez, director of the Cicero Chamber of Commerce which has organized the event in recent years. “It was a time when everyone came out in the fall, the businesses participated and there was a reason we got together. This is on everyone’s calendars from year to year, that they’re going to participate and be here (and) it creates unity for a day.”

The festival, scheduled for this weekend, celebrates the Czech mushroom, or “houby,” gathering season.

In effort to return to the Houby’s roots, Cicero will bring back one of the most well-known traditions of the festival, noticeably missing last year’s celebration — potato pancakes. Hernandez confirmed there was a pancake deficiency last year, but this year, Klas Restaurant will sell the Czech staples along Cermak Road throughout the festival weekend.

Klas Restaurant, at 5734 Cermak Rd., will also host the Houby Ball, set for 9 p.m. Saturday night with Czech cover band, EuroBand.

On Berwyn’s side, organizers from the Main Street program have recruited food vendors to offer mushroom dishes and planned a Czech beer garden to offer four Czech beer brands at Gunderson Avenue and Cermak Road. Next to the beer garden, Main Street organizers will have a stage for mostly Czech musicians and dancers to perform on from about noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday’s main event will be the Houby parade, which Hernandez says already has 100 people and 60 groups signed up to participate. The parade will begin at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, at 56th Court and Cermak Road in Cicero, and proceed west to Riverside Drive in Berwyn.

“My favorite part of the Houby festival is always the parade because I think it’s a true picture of what our community is,” Hernandez said. “It gives me goosebumps to see Berwyn and Cicero putting all of the politics aside and shaking hands for this one day.”