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Elizabeth
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Last year, we learned a great deal about Scandinavia while enjoying Jan Brett. My husband's family is from Norway and it was fun to "visit" in the literary sense.
When we worked on our JPII notebooks last spring, I intended to go back and study Poland more fully, particularly since my father is Polish. We never got there. After watching both JPII movies, I'm resolved again to "do" Poland, particularly the spirituality of the country. Suggestions for our study anyone?
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MaryM
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Fellow Poles, we are. Christmas is a great time to start studying Polish traditions/customs as there are many and it is fairly easy to find information about them. I have a great book for Christmas customs - Treasured Polish Christmas Traditions.
The most important Christmas tradition is sharing the Oplatek (Wafer) (Oh-pwah-tek) on Christmas Eve (Wigilia). "The sacred white wafers, much like those used for Holy Communion, are shared with each person present. During the exchange, good wishes are expressed. This is the most emotional time of the holiday for the Polish family. Those who are no longer alive are particularly remembered at this moment. The pink wafer is shared with the animals who, according to Polish tradition, because they were first to greet the Baby Jesus speak at midnight. This is the most sacred night in the Polish-Polonian Home."
Here are a couple websites with Christmas traditions:
Polish Christmas Traditions
Polish Art Center - Christmas Traditions
The second site - the Polish Art Center one, is a treasure trove of resources for polish cultural and heritage study in general not just for Christmas.
Jenn recommended a book to me, Polish Customs, Traditions, and Folklore. It has a lot of information on religious customs, some of which are full of superstition as well. Very interesting. There are a lot more books that look interesting at art center site as well.
Connecting with one of the Catholic Churches in the US with a traditional Polish ethnicity would be another way to expereince the Catholic faith from a Polish perspective. Here is a directory of those ethnic Catholic parishes. It doesn't look like there are any in Virginia, but there are a couple in Maryland.
I'll be interested to see what others add. I know Jenn is very interested in Polish heritage as well, even though she isn't Polish.
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Elizabeth
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Hey! Look what I found! An Ellis Island Christmas. The little girl in the story is named Krysia. My sister's name is Krysti and I've never seen it spelled that way anywhere else. I guarantee this book will tickle my dad.
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MacBeth
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Ours is a Polish Parish! Come visit us here, and go to our church! All our priests are from Poland. We all have our Oplatek already and waiting, and folks line up, first at the Polish deli, and then on to the church on the next block, to have the meal blessed for Christmas. Here's the official photo (it's even prettier on the inside  ).
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JennGM
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MaryM wrote:
| The second site - the Polish Art Center one, is a treasure trove of resources for polish cultural and heritage study in general not just for Christmas. |
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Love that Polish Art Center! Have gotten a few things from there. One book I found on eBay but is available from PAC is A Polish Christmas Eve by Rev. Czeslaw Michal Krysa. This priest has quite a few little pamphlets also from here, but this book is a treasure mine of traditions, recipes, decorations and songs. It's a tall, fat book, with almost 300 pages filled with information and practical crafts and explanations.
Rev. Czeslaw Michal Krysa wrote the an introduction in this book.
MaryM wrote:
| I'll be interested to see what others add. I know Jenn is very interested in Polish heritage as well, even though she isn't Polish. |
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Well, not lots of time today, but here are some sites I have bookmarked: Polish Traditions
Polish Center
Polish Links
Polana -- Polish food just makes me hungry looking at this site!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Jen L.
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Elizabeth,
I don't have the details but they are selling the wafers at St. Leo's (Fairfax) every day. Here is a link to an old article about the wafers. The price is still similar from what I remember reading (there was an announcement in the St. Raymond's bulletin). Also, while I was searching I saw that the Aquinas and More Catalog is selling the wafers.
Jennifer
Burke, VA
Wife to Klete, mom to Ben (8/95), Gracie (12/97) and Mary (11/00)
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Elizabeth
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I don't care for Polish food--I never have and I remember my grandmother clicking her tongue at such a picky eater  . I think I'll stick with my Italian grandmother's Christmas Eve menu. Oh, but I would love to have some Polish Pottery. Anyone who has ever been to my house knows that I consider pottery an art form well worth collecting. And now, I know just what to ask Dad for for my birthday !
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JennGM
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Jen L. wrote:
Elizabeth,
I don't have the details but they are selling the wafers at St. Leo's (Fairfax) every day. Here is a link to an old article about the wafers. The price is still similar from what I remember reading (there was an announcement in the St. Raymond's bulletin). |
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The St. Leo's Knights sell Christmas trees and also sell the Oplatek there on site. It's not close, but our parish All Saints will be selling the Oplatek after Sunday Masses the next two weeks.
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JennGM
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Elizabeth wrote:
I don't care for Polish food--I never have and I remember my grandmother clicking her tongue at such a picky eater . I think I'll stick with my Italian grandmother's Christmas Eve menu. Oh, but I would love to have some Polish Pottery. Anyone who has ever been to my house knows that I consider pottery an art form well worth collecting. And now, I know just what to ask Dad for for my birthday ! |
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I only like some of the foods...but I love the symbolism behind them.
I'm aching for Polish Pottery myself, but I just didn't know where to start! I like it all! I was going to begin with a child-size tea set for my son and go from there, but that will have to be next year. I found this site that provides local dealers as well as others.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Elizabeth
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jenngm67 wrote:
The St. Leo's Knights sell Christmas trees and also sell the Oplatek there on site. It's not close, but our parish All Saints will be selling the Oplatek after Sunday Masses the next two weeks. |
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Ahh...under the influence of dear Fr. Cilinski, no doubt  .
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JennGM
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Elizabeth wrote:
| Ahh...under the influence of dear Fr. Cilinski, no doubt . |
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He's so wonderful! I cannot tell you how loving and comforting he was for the death and funeral of my grandmother.
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Rachel May
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If you want to look ahead a little, here is a fun tradition I learned about while in Hawaii. My friend and her 6 kids invited the Polish priest over on the Moday after Easter and soaked him with water. He was very surprised and joined right in the fun.
Here is a site that talks about Dyngus Day. Dyngus Day
I'm going to check out the Polish food. Surely there is some yummy Easter Bread that we could serve on Divine Mercy Sunday?
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JennGM
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Rachel May wrote:
If you want to look ahead a little, here is a fun tradition I learned about while in Hawaii. My friend and her 6 kids invited the Polish priest over on the Moday after Easter and soaked him with water. He was very surprised and joined right in the fun.
I'm going to check out the Polish food. Surely there is some yummy Easter Bread that we could serve on Divine Mercy Sunday? |
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Oh yes! I was going to say the Holy Week and Easter Week traditions are terrific! Start planning your Swieconka!
Have you made a Polish Babka?
Oh, found this site Poland by Mail in my Favorites. Had some music and Paschal lambs I was eyeing for next Easter.
I bought from Polish Art Center a few booklets on Polish Easter customs that are really chock full of information. Polish Easter eggs are slightly different than Ukrainian pysanky, and have several styels. Check out booklets by Lawrence G. Kozlowski and Rev. Czeslaw M. Krysa (I wish the names were easier to type  ) and stuff from CWB Press.
Although the search engine isn't flawless, if you go to www.catholicculture.org and search for "poland" many recipes and activities will pull up.
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Elizabeth
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jenngm67 wrote:
Check out booklets by Lawrence G. Kozlowski and Rev. Czeslaw M. Krysa (I wish the names were easier to type ) and stuff from CWB Press.
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My daughter was complaining the other day about how difficult it is to get lower case "z's" just right when learning to write in cursive. I had her practice my maiden name: Elizabeth Grzymala. I still can't figure out why anyone would name their kid "Liz Griz" .
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Elizabeth
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My dad says he remembers ornaments of delicate eggs. I did a search on Polish pysanky ornaments and got a few hit. Big bucks. Then I kept going. This site has Ukranian pysankyChristmas ornaments. I think my father's mother's family was Ukranian or at least Ukranian/Polish, so perhaps he's muddling his ethnic memories.
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Mary G
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It's absolutely amazing when trying to trace family heritage in Eastern Europe -- basically any of the country swalled up by USSR back in the Cold War days. Depending on how far back you go, a Pole can claim Silesia, Prussia, East Germany, parts of Czech republic, etc. We grew up knowing that we were Polish and Czechoslovakian -- but then the Wall fell, Communism ended and now we find out we're realy Polish and Slovak!
Kind of fun as a unit study to create a time line showing who owned who during the various eras!
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JennGM
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Elizabeth wrote:
| My dad says he remembers ornaments of delicate eggs. I did a search on Polish pysanky ornaments and got a few hit. Big bucks. Then I kept going. This site has Ukranian pysankyChristmas ornaments. I think my father's mother's family was Ukranian or at least Ukranian/Polish, so perhaps he's muddling his ethnic memories. |
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Did your father mean the Faberge eggs perhaps? I keep finding beautiful glass eggs from Poland from the tree. I buy some every year for our ornament exchange. I love the ethnic egg crafts and glass blown ornaments!!!
Similar to what Mary G said...many of the Slavic countries have similar customs, just slight differences. My sister brought back from Hungary some painted eggs for the Christmas tree some years back.
In my reading through some of the lit I have here there seems to be use of egg shells and blown eggs for Polish Christmas trees. Maybe you could look for the Polish egg terms (these aren't the only ones...different regions use other names):
Pisanki-raw eggs, similiar to pysanky, divided into two techniques: Batykowane, stylus and wax like Ukrainian eggs and Skrobanki, uses a dyed egg with scratched or scraped decoration
Malowanki--hollow eggs with painted patterns
Wyklejanki--hollow eggs with bullrush pith and colored yarn glued decorations
Nalepianki--hollow eggs with glued colored paper, straw or fabric decorations. In my opinion these would be appropriate for Christmas, since the straw is part of the Wigilia in decorations and for the table.
Came across a few other sites that give lots of information and links for Polish information. Haven't had time to weed through:
Polish Links
Polstore
Polish-American Heritage
Polish Traditions. This page has some reference about Christmas and Epiphany that I haven't seen in other places.
Have to do MY traditions...today we decorate the tree!
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What about Our Lady of Czestochowa? That could be a field trip although I've been told that they only sell polish food there so you might want to pack a lunch!
Here's an article on Black Madonnas which was interesting.
I did try Babka last year for the Feast; I had forgotten. I wasn't sure if it was really Polish because I got the idea from Rechenka's Eggs, I thought that was set in Russia.
The Life of Faustina Kowalska inspired and changed my spirituality completely. I went a little overboard and my confessor had to tell me and the friend who had loaned me the book to knock it off.
A good picture book is Helen's Special Picture.
Ok, I think I have exhausted my knowledge of Poland.
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JennGM
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Rachel May wrote:
What about Our Lady of Czestochowa? That could be a field trip although I've been told that they only sell polish food there so you might want to pack a lunch!
Here's an article on Black Madonnas which was interesting.
I did try Babka last year for the Feast; I had forgotten. I wasn't sure if it was really Polish because I got the idea from Rechenka's Eggs, I thought that was set in Russia. ...
Ok, I think I have exhausted my knowledge of Poland. |
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 Rachel, your posts always bring a smile to my face.
There are different recipes of Babka, you just need a Polish version. I can find a few for you! I keep recommending this book, but it's great for very detailed instructions for all sorts of breads from around the world: Celebration Breads by Betsy Oppenneer. For Poland she has a Babka and Paczki. The latter is for Fat Tuesday.
And to comment on the Our Lady of Czestochowa....One of my cherished memories is attending the World Youth Day in Czestochowa, Poland in 1991. To see the Marian devotion of the Poles and visit the actual shrine was so moving.
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Elizabeth
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So Jenn, how do you pronounce Czestochowa?
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: Poland
