Adding Ancestral Touches To Your Lent & Easter Routine
This year, do something Polish!
By Robert Strybel
Polish/Polonian Lifestyles Writer
CELEBRATE FAT THURSDAY: In Poland it is the last Thursday before Lent or Tłusty Czwartek (this year 27 February) that is celebrated as pączki day. It just occurred to me that The Black Friday-promoting mob have found a way to unload even more of their unsold junk by bamboozling the gullible into also accepting Black Weekend, Black Week and even Black Month, Why can’t culture promoters do the same?! Why not consider combining Polish Fat Thursday with the Polonian Pączki Day (Fat or Shrove Tuesday – this year on 4 March) for a six-day Super Pączki Weekend? Lots a fun for all plus a boon to fund raisers and bakers,
ENJOY PĄCZKI DAY: In recent years, Pączki Day (in Polonia this year on 27 February) has grown in popularity in many American cities. Be sure to attend a pączki-related event this year or even hold your own. Typical events might include a pączki sale, pączki party or pączki ball.
SHROVE TUESDAY: It coincides with Polonia’s Pączki Day and is appropriately known as Ostatki (the final fling) in Polish, because it marks the last day of pre-Lenten merriment. At a Pączki Party or other frolicsome Mardi Gras event, consider adding a humorous Old Polish touch. In the past, such meet-ups would end at the stroke of midnight (beginning Ash Wednesday) with a devil posted at the door to note down anyone who had continued drinking, eating and making merry. According to Polish folklore, the devil also has horns, a goatee beard and pitchfork, but is black from head to toe, not red!).
ŚLEDZIK: Not a full meal, the herring snack symbolizes the transition from rich, tasty, vodka-laced indulgence to lean, Lenten fare. Śledzik, pickled herring, is usually served with just rye bread or boiled potatoes. It can culminate Pączki Day/Shrove Tuesday festivities or be served on or after Ash Wednesday. Poles who do not strictly observe Friday abstinence throughout the year, may opt do so on Lenten Fridays, and most certainly on Good Friday.
ASH WEDNESDAY: All Catholic parishes observe this holiday with its Ash-Cross-on-forehead ritual. But some, especially many of Polonia’s senior citizens, feel it can be even more profoundly experienced in the hauntingly elaborate interiors of our cathedral-like, Neo-Baroque and Neo-Gothic, Old Polonian churches. Sadly, many have been closed, decommissioned or sold to non-Polonian groups. Those that still function are often in “bad” neighborhoods, but an organized Ash Wednesday bus or van trip to such a church might appeal to up-in-age PolAms as well as their kids and grandkids. Worth considering?
FRIDAY HERRING & PIEROGI SUPPERS: Since nowadays many people are doing less and less home cooking but still crave home-style food, this might go over in many different places. Parishes, the social halls of PolAm organizations as well as bars and restaurants would seem to be the logical venues. Lent is not a time to indulge in rich, fancy, gourmet dishes or heavy drinking, so sticking to the basics would be the most appropriate. This could include herring and boiled potatoes, fried fish, meatless pierogi, perhaps also żurek.
ATTEND A POLISH EASTER FAIR: A Jarmark Wielkanocny (Easter Market or Fair) can offer assorted Easter artifacts such as Polish Easter “palms”, pisanki (real and wooden Easter eggs), pisanki-making kits, Easter lambs (including lamb butter molds and lamb cake pans), wicker baskets, Polish cook books and recorded Easter hymns. Also: different kinds of Polish sausage and ham, roasts, white Easter barszcz, horseradish, ćwikła (beetroot & horseradish), rye bread and holiday cakes: babka, placek, chałka, mazurek and sernik. No such markets or fairs in your area? See next entry.
POLONIA’S EASTER HEADQUARTERS: If such markets still haven’t taken root around where you live, a good alternative is Polonia’s biggest cultural-good emporium – Michigan’s Polish Art Center. Look for them online to see the Easter goods they are offering this year. Apart from Easter items, you will also find other Polish goods such as maps, flags, books, recordings, crystal, amber jewelry, wood- carvings, wall-hangings, folk costumes, ethnic novelties and much more. The owners, Ray and Joan Bittner and their kids are eager to answer your question, advise or otherwise assist you.
EASTER GREETINGS: Wesołego Alleluja is the traditional old-school greeting, but Wesołych Świąt Wielkanocnych is also acceptable. It used to be that just Wesołych Świąt had been used for both Christmas and Easter without additional adjectives, but eight years of rule by the tradition-minded Law & Justice (L&J) party has expanded the Christmas greeting on the air to: Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia. That would be the difference between Happy Holidays and Happy Christmas (or Easter) Holidays. If you wish to email more personalized greetings you may type: Życzymy Wam wszystkim miłych i zdrowych Świąt Wielkanocnych oraz smacznego święconego. For greater religious emphasis, in place of smacznego święconego, type: obfitych łask Bożych. For a humorous touch, after smacznego święconego type: i mokrego Dyngusa. To get all the Polish accent marks in place, google Polishtypeit.
PALM SUNDAY: Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday (this year – 13 April), commemorating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem amid cheering crowds. In some Polish localities, the procession is re-enacted with a figure of Christ astride a donkey pulled on wheels through the streets or someone playing Jesus actually riding a real donkey at its head. At Mass, the long gospel relating Christ’s Passion and Death on the Cross is preached. In America, the palms being blessed are usually real, thin-leaved ones. In Poland, where subtropical palms did not grow, Polish folk culture had to make do with pussy-willow and boxwood or cranberry-leaf bouquets. Especially in NE Poland’s Wilno region, it also developed the multi-colored rod-type bouquets (palmy wileńskie) incorporating dried meadow flowers and assorted greenery. As a result, in Polonia we have palm-weaving, while in Poland it is palm-rolling (kręcenie palm). The rod-type palsm habe spread across Poland and also appeal to many Polonians who have have seen them, Maybe it’s time to promote this folk art in these United States? Don’t you thnk there are a little too few Polish ingredients in A merica’s multi-rethnioc salad bowl?
PASCHAL TRIDUUM: Later in the week come the three most solemn days preceding the Resurrection: Holy Thursday (17 April), Good Friday (18 April) and Holy Saturday (19 April). Like Ash Wednesday, this might be a good occasion to organize a bus, van or car-pool trip to the Old Polish neighborhood depending on the interest in your parish or area.
BLESSING EASTER FOOD: One of the best-loved Polish Easter customs is the Holy Saturday blessing of Easter baskets containing samples of the delicacies to be served on Easter Sunday. PolAms stuck in an ethnically sterile suburbia have been known to travel some distance to bless their Święcone (Hallowfare – dzięks for that neologism, Father Czesław!). If there is sufficient interest in such an “innovation,” perhaps the pastor could be persuaded to introduce it. There is something deep, warm, down-home and Old World charming about it that often gains popularity among people, including non-Polonians, exposed to it. After the blessing, it is the tradition to pray at the tableau of Christ lying in His Tomb.
SUNRISE EASTER MASS: Known in Polish as Rezurekcja, Easter Sunday’s first Mass has long been a festive and jubilant event reflecting the joy of the faithful that that “He is risen.” Topography permitting, it begins with a procession of clergy, nuns, altar boys and parishioners that thrice encircles the church. The scent of incense and the sound of church-bells fill the air as the faithful process, jubilantly singing Nie zna śmierci Pan żywota and other beloved hymns. In the background detonations can be heard, as a nearby military unit rolls out a howitzer for its Easter salute. Closer to home, some adults fire a shotgun into the air, while yomgsters have to make do with firecrackers.
BIG EASTER BREAKFAST: In Polish tradition, the family’s main celebratory meal is not Easter dinner but Easter breakfast. Święcone a.k.a. Śniadanie Wielkanocne is served after family members have returned from Easter morning Mass and the culinary chores have been completed. Grace is said, and among the more devout the gospel account of the Resurrection is read. Then it’s time for dzielenie się jajkiem – sharing wedges or halves of the blessed hard-cooked eggs. Only then does the feast get under way. Favorites include biały barszcz or żurek, hot stuffed eggs in shell halves, eggs in various sauces, cold meats (different types of ham and sausage, pâté, head cheese and jellied pig’s feet). Biała kiebasa (boiled or baked “fresh” (unsmoked) Polish sausage is a must, as are horseradish, ćwikła (beetroot/horseradish relish), often also marinated pickled mushrooms and other pickled veggies. Favorite Easter cakes include babka, placek, mazurek, sernik and sękacz.
COMMUNITY EASTER SUNDAY BREAKFAST: In areas where people have drifted away from the big Polish Easter breakfast, this normally family-only meal can be held as a community function. A parish social hall is the ideal venue for the breakfast held after Easter morning mass. Such a Święcone is the perfect opportunity to remind people of the Polish Easter foods of their childhood. In our more de-ethnicized families, Easter morning and early afternoon may be devoted to preparing that “Big Easter Dinner.” On the other hand, a parish Easter Breakfast might be the ideal option for elderly parishioners living alone with kids and grandkids at the other end of the country.
ŚWIĘCONE MEAL FOR NEEDY: In Poland, many cities and parishes hold a free Easter dinner for the homeless, poor and elderly living alone. For Polish people, spending major holidays alone is especially depressing and painful. Although meant for the needy, everyone is welcome with no questions asked. Those who can afford it are free od make a donation. In good weather, this is often an outdoor event. Typical fare includes żurek (tart ryemeal soup with hard-cooked eggs, kiełbasa and horseradish), biała kiełbasa (cooked “fresh,” unsmoked sausage), hard-cooked eggs in different ways, ćwikła (beetroot/horseradish relish) and Eater cakes (babka, mazurek, sernik). These events attract several hundred and in big cities even a thousand or more participants. They include the singing of well-known Easter hymns such as Chrystus z martwychwstan jest and Otrzyjcie łzy płaczący. When its all over, participants may get take-away “doggy bags” from the leftovers.
SAINT DRENCHER’S DAY or EASTER MONDAY: The day after Easter is a legal holiday in Poland which the devout and elderly begin with Holy Mass. But to the younger set, particularly pre-adolescents and teens, it is mainly Śmigus-Dyngus. This custom came about through the merger of two separate folk practices. Śmigus meant that girls got their legs thrashed with pussy-willows. Dyngus was a form of Easter trick-or-treating. A stingy householder might get drenched with a bucketful of water for failing to provide an adequate treat. It is the drenching aspect that has survived down to our times in Poland. Armed with brim-full buckets, bottles and store-bought squirting devices, from early morning, boys are on the prowl to drench any girl they see. But the “young ladies” often fight back with the best of them, turning the encounter into a dripping-wet free-for-all. This cusotm was once widespread in Old Polonia. Should it be re-invented? What od you think?
POLONIA’S POST-EASTER ŚWIĘCONKA: The Święconka Easter party is a purely Polonian innovation. In Poland, holiday celebrations have always been mainly family affairs, but the old 19th– and early-20th-century immigrants mostly comprised bachelors and married men with wives still in the Old Country. Many lived in male-only boarding or rooming houses and felt especially lonely and far from home during major holidays. That is probably why the Święconka Easter Party as well as December’s Opłatek-Dinner caught on and have survived down to the present. It can began with a priest blessing the food and giving an invocation, followed by a dinner of typically Polish Easter fare. There is usually an open or cash bar and the inevitable polka dancing. Holding such an event can give many of today’s up-in-agers a chance to relive their fond memories of life in Merry Old Polonia.
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