Posts tagged with "easter"

Easter – Wielkanoc

Posted by Anna No Comments
Apr 3 2010

Anna’s comment –
I asked Adam to write about Easter knowing full well that he would be reluctant to do so. And also knowing full well that he would object to the idea that being Polish equals being Catholic. But unfortunately, for what it’s worth, Poland is perceived as a Catholic country, and Easter is a religious holiday. An important one, at that.

So here is Adam’s Easter write-up:

As this is the time of Easter I was asked to write about Polish traditions connected with this specific holiday. I do have some mixed feelings writing about this topic. First of all, I do not feel that religion should be connected with nationality, and I don’t see Catholic religious rituals as something specifically connected with being Polish. As Polish people do also come as atheists and followers of other faiths. Although Catholic rituals in Poland sometimes seem removed from their religious roots and appear nothing more but as simply – traditions. And this is probably the most popular approach.

First Easterish celebrations begin one week before Easter – on Palm Sunday (niedziela palmowa). On this day people bring decorative “palms” to church to get them sprinkled with Holy Water, which surely has some deep religious meaning. In many villages there are special competitions for the biggest or most beautiful “palm”. Those palms are then taken back home, and kept as Easter decorations.

Proper Easter begins in Poland on Holy Saturday (Wielka Sobota, literally Great Saturday). This is the day of preparations. Easter is not Easter without certain props – that are connected with spring, and everything waking up and refreshing. These props are of course eggs (jaja, jajka), but also bunnies, chickens. Many people arrange tree branches with fresh pussy willows (bazie) in a vase. Eggs need to be colored and turned into pisanki. There are many different ways of doing it, and it’s usually a fun activity for kids. In some regions people simply boil eggs with onions, beets or other natural ingredients – which turn the eggshells red. Some people first use melted wax to create patterns on eggs, and then dip them in color. All painted (waxed over) areas are then white. Some people cut small patterns in paper and stick them to eggs. Others prefer to empty the egg, and make a wydmuszka. They pierce a little hole with a needle at the top and bottom of an egg and then blow air inside and the insides of the egg come out through the hole. And then color the shell.

When the eggs are ready, people put them together with a piece of white sausage (biała kiełbasa), a bit of salt, some bread into a specially decorated little basket. This basket (święconka) is then taken to church on Holy Saturday and after some religious abracadabra its contents are all ready for use on Sunday.

Sunday breakfast is the crucial point of Polish Easter. Before the breakfast eggs from the basket are cut and people at the table share them giving good wishes to everyone there. Traditional Easter breakfast consists of żurek (soup made from fermented flour), boiled white sausage, pates, eggs in many forms and cakes (like baba drożdżowa – lit. yeasty peasant woman, name comes from a traditional holiday folk dress peasant women used to wear, which this cake resembles in shape.

Celebrations continue on Easter Monday (lany poniedziałek), called in Polish śmigus dyngus or śmingus dyngus. It’s a day when people try to splash one another (by sometimes very nasty surprise, of course) with water. It is said to bring good luck. It comes from peasant traditions, when back in the olden days usually single young men splashed young single girls. Today everyone splashes everyone, and the young ones are most engaged in this process. It is advised to stay at home on this day, as it is possible that hoards of youngsters will get you and soak you wet with buckets of water. This is śmigus dyngus taken to extreme.

Some people prefer to be exempt from all the Easter hassle and travel for the long weekend break:)

Tak czy owak Polski Blog życzy Wam wesołych świąt i smacznego jajka
Anyway Polish Blog wishes you happy holidays and tasty eggs (that’s what people do wish one another in Poland).

Polish Easter Monday

Posted by Anna 7 Comments
Apr 11 2009

So, Easter day is almost here. And before you start celebrating (if you do Easter), here are a few things to remember about Wielkanoc in Poland:

1. It’s a two-day holiday and people go to church on both days.
2. Food is a major Easter feature (but I guess the same can be said about all Polish celebrations) and you just can’t have this occasion without eggs. That’s one constant throughout the country, because when it comes to other foods on your Easter table, they can vary according to the region. In some parts of Poland people enjoy this awful duck blood soup (czernina). I know it can be made with other kinds of blood but my great-aunt used to make it with duck blood). In some regions of the country, people will eat rabbit, but in others they might prefer lamb. In my family, it was just “meat” and I’m not really sure what it used to be when it was alive. I didn’t like the taste either way.

3. You can’t have Easter without babka wielkanocna (Easter cake) and those can also vary depending on the region. Of course, if you’re not a fan of babka (and I’m not), there’s plenty of other cakes to choose from. My personal favorite is makowiec (poppy seed roll) the way my grandma used to make it. Yum!!! (Please, no goofy jokes about poppy seeds here, I am fully aware that makowiec is off limits in many places in the world – Singapore and Dubai immediately come to mind).

4. And then you have Easter Monday, known in Poland as Śmingus Dyngus. This is basically an officially  sanctioned occasion to pour copious amounts of cold water on people you know, and on some you don’t know. I hate it. This is one Polish tradition that I haven’t told my foreign family about. And I hope they’ll stay unaware of it for as long as possible.

So, enjoy your holidays! And mokrego dyngusa!!! Get out your water guns and have fun!

Polish Diminutives – one more time

Posted by Anna 4 Comments
Apr 7 2009

I think I should add a brief explanation regarding my previous post on diminutive proper names.

I am fully aware that if you really want to you can create zdrobnienia of just about any name out there, including Agnieszka, for example. The difference between some names and others is this: while very few perfect strangers would think to address a grown woman they don’t know as “Pani Agusia” (Agnieszka), they consider it perfectly normal and natural to say “Pani Krysia” (Krystyna) or “Pani Asia” (Joanna).

A few weeks ago when I was calling the pharmacy to find out if my prescriptions were ready for pick up, the pharmacist said this: “Pani Aneczko, lekarstewka są gotowe” (polite Pani, then my name in one of its diminutive forms, medicines are ready). For a sec I had to think who this “Pani Aneczka” was. And no, I’m not friends with the lady who works at the pharmacy, I don’t even know her name. But just because she knows my name, where I live and what kind of yeast infection treatment I use, she thinks it gives her the right to call me “Pani Aneczka”???

And “lekarstewka”??? Isn’t it a bit of an overkill? But unfortunately, this is what happens in Polish.

  • lekarstwo (neuter, plural: lekarstwa) – medicine

The pharmacist used “lekarstewka” – plural of “lekarstewko”, which would be what exactly, huh? Itsy bitsy medicine?

This use of diminutives in every day conversations is so widespread, that I don’t even remember the last time I was offered something other than “herbatka” (tea, diminutive) or “kawka” (“kawunia” or “kawusia” in some cases, either way, it’s coffee, diminutive) to accompany a “ciasteczko” (cake, diminutive) or a “kawałeczek placuszka z jabłuszkami” (piece of apple pie/cake, diminutive).

You know you are fully fluent in Polish when you stop getting confused if I asked at the store whether you prefer “szyneczka” (ham, diminutive) or “polędwiczka” (different kind of ham, diminutive). And then make your own “kanapeczki z pomidorkiem i ogóreczkiem” (sandwiches with tomato and cucumber, diminutive) with “plastereczki” (slices, diminutive) of either your “szyneczka” or “polędwiczka“.

Though wait a sec here.

“Kanapka” is one of those goofy nouns. It’s a diminutive already – of “kanapa” which means “sofa.” But “kanapka” is a sandwich. And “kanapeczka” (sandwich, diminutive) is what you may offer your unexpected guests for a quick lunch. And oh yeah, “kanapeczka” doesn’t have to be small. One of my friends makes “kanapeczki” (plural of diminutive sandwiches) the size of wagon wheels.

And now, if you excuse me, because this is tydzień wielkanocny (Easter week), I have been tasked with preparing a traditional Polish Easter in this far-away exotic land that I am currently visiting. So, I need to go out and buy “jajeczka” (eggs, diminutive) to make “pisaneczki” (painted eggs, diminutive) and sort out a nice “koszyczek” (basket, diminutive) for “święconeczka” (diminutive of “święconka“ which is an assortment of food put in a basket and taken to church to be blessed on Great/Holy Saturday.)

There’s no church here to take my “święconka“ to, but I guess it’s the thought that counts, right?

Wesołych Świąt Wielkiej Nocy!!! – Happy Easter!!!

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