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Polish Folk Art.
For centuries since the dawn of feudalism, a traditional folk art has thrived in the villages and small towns of Poland. This art, intimately connected with the everyday life and local interests of the common people and enriched by creative individuals in each new generation, reflects the uniqueness of each of Poland's regions.
Folk art includes not only such standard forms as painting, sculpture and wood engraving, but also decorative art, such as paper cut-outs, decorations made of straw, painted Easter eggs, and wedding and birthday cakes. Folk art also includes weaving, embroidery, pottery, wooden vessels and household utensils and metal products.
Folk art is still very much alive in many regions of Poland. Today, its lasting artistic value and the specific features of its content and style give this art a high place in Poland's national culture.
Sharing the Bread, Salt and Wine at a Polish Wedding
The sharing of the bread, salt and wine is an old Polish tradition. At the wedding reception, the parents of the bride and groom, greet the newly married couple with bread, which is lightly sprinkled with salt and a goblet of wine.
With the bread, the parents are hoping that their children will never hunger or be in need. With the salt, they are reminding the couple that their life may be difficult at times, and they must learn to cope with life's struggles. With the wine, they are hoping that the couple will never thirst and wish that they have a life of good health, and good cheer and share the company of many good friends.
The parents then kiss the newly married couple as a sign of welcome, unity and love.
Dozynki - Harvest Day.
Dozynki (to reap, to mow) was a great landowners’ festival in the time of big country estate economy (16th – 18th century). It had the characteristics of a feast and a dance, given by the owners of the estate in honor of all their servants and farm workers. The custom of celebrating the end of the harvest and other field works has been kept alive even today as an important feast of the whole agricultural state, In the whole territory of Poland, a special meaning was attached to the last clump or strip of the crops, which used to be left in the field for some time and ploughed around in a ceremonial way. The last handfuls of cereal were called broda (beard). It was believed to be inhabited by some mysterious forces able to keep up vegetation and decide about next year’s crops. The start of the harvest, which was supposed to crown the whole year’s efforts, was initiated in a particular ceremonial way - the reapers would decorate their tools with flowers and then pray.
Harvest wreath parades and the act of handing the harvest wreath to the host of the Dozynki festival, was initially held by the lord of the manor. It was later was taken over by the better-off farmers, the local parish priest, and finally by the local authorities. Dozynki wreaths are exhibited, coming from all over Poland. They are a symbol of the crops and fruits of the earth that have been gathered. Today, they are still respectfully kept till the next year and the grain that shells off is later added to the spring sowing seed.
June 23rd - St. John’s night.
Saint John’s festival, in Poland called Sobotka, from the ritual bonfires lighted on that night), or St John’s night (from John the Baptist) was celebrated the night from June 23rd to June 24th, at the time of summer solstice and used to be held as a summer welcome festival, integrating the rites of fire, water and great love and fertility celebrations.
Young people used to gather at forest glades and hills, round big bonfires lighted by an old technique of rubbing sticks and kept burning with wooden beams. Girls wore white clothes, danced in circles and sang love songs, while boys showed off their agility leaping over the fire.
The amorous frivolities of St John’s night were a manifestation of readiness for procreation and giving birth.
What is left from those ancient beliefs and practices is the custom of floating wreaths down a river. Although the custom itself has been kept till the present times, nowadays it is nothing but a form of entertainment.
The St John’s night’s wreaths, woven of many kinds of herbs and flowers, both from the field and the garden, symbolized virginity, which girls were ready to offer to their boyfriends on that night in return for their love and promise of a wedding.
Lajkonik.
To commemorate Poland's victory over the Tatars, in 1241, the Lajkonik Parade is held each Spring in the Market Place of Krakow, Poland.
A disguised Tatar warrior with a hobbyhorse fastened to the waist, called Lajkonik (lie-KOH-neek), in Polish, prances around chasing people with his mace celebrating the occasion with dancing and merrymaking. It is said that if he touches you with his mace, it brings good luck throughout the year!
Karnawal (Carnival).
The Karnawal (Carnival) is a joyful time in Poland between the end of Christmas holidays and the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday). In the old days it was a period of active socializing in Poland. During the carnival, entertainment included hunting, weddings, balls and masquerades. Not only gentry, but the city and village common folk enjoyed themselves during carnival. The company not only ate, drank and danced, but also sang songs, sometimes with quite frivolous lyrics.
There were no special carnival delicacies. Only among cakes there were carnival Faworki (chruscik) and great amounts of Paczki (doughnuts) are still consumed throughout the country on the last Thursday (so-called “Fat Thursday”) of the carnival.
In the villages the young farmhands went around with a wooden ***** on a cart, obtaining cheese, butter, bacon, kielbasa and eggs from the girls. In the end they organized a merry feast from the collected food, along with drinks.
Carnival came to an end on Ash Wednesday. All good food was forsaken and zur (sour soup made from white borsch) and herring were eaten instead
December 31st - New Year’s Eve Sylwester .
New Year’s Eve in the city in Poland is celebrated at more or less formal balls. Some of them have a long-lasting tradition, as for example the ball at the Warsaw Philharmonic Society, the sportsmen’s ball or the ball at the castle in Golub-Dobrzyn attended by “the man of the year”. A New Year’s Eve ball always begins with a polonaise.
In the country the New Year’s Eve day gave in the past an occasion to unpunished pranks of all kinds.
It was not unusual for the village josters to disassemble somebody’s wagon and reassemble it on the roof of a house, or to smear windows and door knobs with tar, or only to hide pots that had been drying on a fence. In Zywiec region for example, groups of boys disguised as devils, bears, Gipsies and beggars scour the village and with the earsplitting whip crackling and rattling of empty cans they will accost any young woman they come across and knock her down in snow. All the tricks are forgiven for they are believed to be ousting the old passing year.
One important characteristics of New Year’s Day was bread-baking. Different animals were shaped from the dough - sheep, rabbits, geese, cows. Godparents often gave these bread animals with best wishes to godchildren as presents. In some areas of Poland paczki or donuts were baked to assure wealth for the whole year.
Bread in the shapes of a ring, a cross or a child were hidden at the dinner table and used for fortune telling. If someone found a ring, marriage awaited. A cross - entry into clergy. And a child - a child out of wedlock.
Other traditions include, that those who wake up early on New Year’s Day will wake up early for the rest of the year. Those who touched the floor with the right foot when getting up from bed could expect a lot of good luck the whole year. And those who wanted to get rich had to put change in a small bag and run through the fields shaking the bag and making a lot of noise.
November 29th - Eve of St. Andrew’s Day (Andrzejki).
This a special night for young Polish girls who want to find a husband. On this night and the next day, fortunes are told and the results are not taken lightly. Here are a few ways that fortunes are told:
- The most popular way is by melting wax and pouring it into a bowl of cold water. Wax is then picked up from the water, raised to the light, and the girls try to see the similarities of it to real objects. Depending on the shapes, fortunes are told for the following year. If nothing meaningful comes up, there is always a chance that a girl will dream of something important dealing with her future, that night - but only if she could remember it.
- In another traditional way of fortune telling, girls stand in a circle leaning over a bowl of water with a small floating walnut shell containing a tiny lighted candle. Each girl pastes a slip of paper with the name of a favored young man on the inside edge of the bowl above the water. To whichever name the lighted candle sailed to and burnt, a marriage proposal from him could be expected.
- Also, during the day, a girl counts to the fourteenth post on a fence to see what her future husband will look like - fat, thin, short, tall, old, young.
- In another game, a scarf, a ribbon, and a rosary are placed separately under three plates. A girl, her eyes blindfolded, turns around three times while other girls rearrange the plates. If she draws a scarf, it means marriage; a ribbon - single for another year; rosary - becomes a spinster or a nun.
Building a House.
A house is the only place where the family can live, raise a family, and give shelter to the elderly. That’s why it was very important in Poland to take under consideration where the house was built, what structure it took, and the way it was used. It was reflected in Polish customs and traditions.
The place and the time for building the house were chosen very carefully. Places that were believed to be haunted or cursed had to be avoided. The first thing done after the place for the house was chosen was to get rid of any demons or bad… A line was drawn around the future house and an animal was sacrificed and placed under the future doorway, usually a hen or a rooster. Later on, many things substituted the animal sacrifice, like eggs, a piece of iron, an ax, or a horseshoe. It is still a tradition in Poland to (swiecic) the (fundamenty) there are still (wioski) where people place bread, wheat, herbs, salt, and a holy image under the four corners of the house. The belief in a horseshoe bringing good luck survived until modern times. It protected against bad demons.
The material that the house was to be built with was chosen very carefully. The trees had to be straight and healthy. The host had to ask the family members and the neighbors for help while bringing the trees from the forest and while building the house. Nobody would decline help – it was old Polish unwritten law to help out. The first logs were put (przy pelni ksiezyca on Wednesday or Saturday) after giving them a blessing with the sign of cross, and then a special meal was served. After the walls were finished and the roof put up, on top of it a bunch of hay, twigs, or flowers was tied. It was sign of something being born, a symbol of life, a connection of a man to a nature. This tradition is still observed in Poland.
History of Oplatek.
Sharing of oplatek was, and still is the core and essence of Christmas Eve celebration throughout Poland.
Oplatek is essentially unconsecrated bread wafer of the type used during holy communion in many different Christian religions.It has been suggested by Polish ethnographers that the sharingOf this bread wafer at the wigilia table is a modificationOf what was once the sharing of a ritual bread called podplomyk. This was a thin, flat bread traditionally baked before Placing the loaves of bread dough in the oven. The baking of this first bread was not a chance happening, but an absolute responsibility. The housewife shaped this thin bread on a flat surface and, scraping aside the glowing embers of the flames, giving its name - before the flames. To easily break this bread into parts after baking, the housewife made heavy marks of a checkerboard pattern across the top. This bread baked quickly, with bubbles on he top. It was eaten not only by the inhabitants of the house but was also sent to friendly neighbors. The appearance of this bread in conjunction with the oplatek gave rise to the conjecture that it was an early form of the bread wafer.
In Poland, the bread wafer was known from the time of Christianity, but used only during Holy Mass. By the 15th
century, the bread wafers were being made on a larger scale for popular use. Wafers were used as snack with wine, as a seal for letters, and for making Christmas decorations called swiaty. Developing simultaneously with the spread of wafers was the art of iron engraving. Rectangular shaped irons, the insides engraved with various religious
motifs, were used to emboss scenes on the wafer. The dough was poured on one side, the other half closed over, and the iron held over a fire until the wafer was baked.
Over the time, the responsibility of making and distributing the bread wafer was taken by the church organist, who
received some small payment. White bread wafers were made for human consumption and red, green, and gold for animals.
Taken from "Polish Customs, Traditions & Folklore" by Sophie Hodorowicz Knab.
(http://www.polishamericancenter.org/Customs&Traditions.htm)
(http://www.polstore.com/html/polishtraditions.html)
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| Polish Customs |
Polish Folk Art.
For centuries since the dawn of feudalism, a traditional folk art has thrived in the villages and small towns of Poland. This art, intimately connected with... |
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