Polish Customs, Traditions and Folklore

by Sophie Hodorowicz Knab, C. Krysa

Polish Customs, Traditions, & Folklore is organized by months beginning with December and Advent, St. Nicholas Day, the Wigilia (Christmas Eve) nativity plays, caroling and then New Year celebrations. It proceeds from the Shrovetide period to Ash Wednesday, Lent, the celebration of spring, Holy Week customs then superstitions, beliefs and rituals associated with farming, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, midsummer celebrations, harvest festivities, wedding rites, nameday celebrations, birth and death rituals. Line illustrations enhance this rich and varied treasury of folklore. Many of the customs and traditions found herein are extinct even in today's Poland. World wars, massive immigration, the loss of the oral tradition, urbanization and politics have changed the face of a once agrarian people and their accompanying life style. In the U.S., the desire for membership within the "melting pot," marriages outside one's ethnic group, movement to the suburbs away from the "old" communities where customs and traditions were once strong, further weakened the link. Although the purpose and meaning may have been lost and forgotten, the oczepiny ceremony (the unveiling) is still the mainstay of almost every wedding where the bride declares Polish heritage. Many Polish American communities still reenact the harvest celebrations, reminding themselves of their ancestors' reverence for the grains and gifts of bread. Eight million Americans still claim their ancestry as Polish, many still diligently practicing that which they learned at their parents' and grandparents' knees. Much has also been neglected or completely forgotten. My hopes in writing this book are to educate and to celebrate, to act as a catalyst for the initiation of, or the revival of, various customs and traditions, to offer a sense of rootedness and belonging and, lastly, to preserve a slice of what was the life of a people with whom many can claim, or someday may wish to reclaim, a kinship.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Poland, Folklore, Cultural, Polish Literature, Reference

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 1992

Reviews

[Robert Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I regularly check this book to learn what my ancestors did throughout the year. Today, for example, is Groundhog Day in North America, but what about in Poland?:

Whereas Americans use animals to predict the weather for the following six weeks until the official spring in March, the Poles of the Tarnów-Rzeszow region used the bear. If on the day of Matka Boska Gromniczna, the bear came out of his winter lair and found frost, he would knock down and pull apart his hiding place because he would expect that winter would end shortly. However, if the day was a damp one, he came out and spent time mending it because winter would hang on for quite some time yet.

Source: "Polish Customs, Traditions & Folklore", p. 68
http://www.poloniamusic.com/Book_of_P...

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the customs and traditions take a bit of an idealized view of what life was like for families in the poor farm villages of Poland, there are a lot of good tidbits here about holiday customs, birth and death rituals, and children’s games. In a way, reading this made me kind of sad knowing that a people with such a rich cultural heritage weren’t able to observe most of these customs and traditions because of war, poverty and disease that plagued Poland and followed those who fled the country in the early 20th century. Within two generations of coming to United States, most of these traditions and games were forgotten and replaced by more Western European activities.

[Seajay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned the story behind many traditions from my childhood. But the main impression given is how inextricably woven are the pagan with the Christian practices. The Poles drink and party a lot more than I suspected 😊 and the rites surrounding weddings were simply over the top. Well researched lore, very interesting.

[Edward Champion · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a decent overview of post-medieval social rituals, although I do wish that it had been better sourced. There's quite a lot of crossover between Jewish traditions and Polish traditions -- particularly on the wedding front. My Polish girlfriend informs me that most of these rituals are no longer practiced, but many of them are quite intriguing -- including the drowning of the Marzanna, in which villagers drown an effigy in the nearest body of water, sing darkly humorous songs, and then sprint home as rapidly as possible. But if any of the villagers fall, then they will die before the end of the year. So sayeth the folklore. Knab writes clearly about all of this, dividing her book into months. I do think there are a few points where she scrapes traditions that were practiced in many other nations and claims them as strictly Polish because of this structure, which is a little annoying. But reading this book reminded me of the many times I have picked up a random volume of my copy of Fraser's THE GOLDEN BOUGH (unabridged edition) and become fascinated by the rituals and cultural traditions that humans have invented to either explain the inexplicable or to pass the time.

[Alissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book; the only recommendation I would make is that it could use more photos or illustrations.