Post Eagle Newspaper

Tuesday

Nov 12, 2024

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Lighting The Way

 I wonder how many of you know about the commercial discovery of oil — how it all began and where. Well, it was late afternoon in a small village in Poland. The date was July 31, 1853. A small crowd of onlookers assembled in the main hospital in Lwow to witness an operation carried out by surgeon Zaorski on a …

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CUSTOMS

Polish Immigrant Piety

The following description of Polonian immigration in early America by Rev. Joseph Szarek is so rewarding that I felt that you, my dear readers, should experience it… Anyone desiring a proper  understanding of the Polish people in the United States and their contribution to Western civilization must first reconstruct the life of the Polish immigrants in America. This cannot be …

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On Bread and Butter

Why do we butter our bread? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Well, would you believe that our modern custom of buttering bread had its origin in a 16th century situation and that none other than our famous Polish astronomer Mikolaj Kopernik (Copernicus) was responsible. It was also the beginning of the medical concept of preventive medicine. A Vermont …

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Our Culinary Past

The history of culinary art is as old as the history of Poland. Mention of famous Polish feasts has come down to us from a thousand years ago, from the days of the reign of Poland’s first crowned king, Boleslaw Chrobry (Boleslaw the Brave). Poland’s monarch was host to Otto III, ruler of half of Europe, and as a token …

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The King of Central Park

If you happen to be one of those metropolitanites that spends part of their summer enjoying the beauty of Central Park, that famous New York City landmark, then I shall leave it to your curiosity to discover the monument of King Wladyslaw Jagiello mounted on a stallion in a remote part of the park. King Jagiello was the victor in …

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Karnawal – PreLenten Customs

As you know, we are immersed in the Lenten season. With Lent, comes some strict religious observances, such as Friday fasting. When I was a youngster, there were stricter rules of fast and abstinence. In the late 40’s and early 50’s, prior to the onslaught of television, even the radio was forbidden during the Lenten season. Lent was practically meatless …

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The January Rising

January 1863 saw the outbreak in the Russian partition of an uprising which was more extensive in both its territorial and social scope, lasted longer and was more tragic in its results than any previous Polish insurrection. For over two years small, dispersed and ill-armed insurgent unites waged an unequal struggle against regular unites of the tsarist army. The uprising, …

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Christmas In Poland

The forty-five day period preceding Christmas was one of quiet waiting, spent in prayer and fast. Song, laughter and music were silenced. Farm girls gathered at the spinning wheels. At the end of November, on St. Catherine’s and St. Andrew’s Eve, the young people foretold their future with noise and hilarity, but after that began the daily prayers and masses …

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Giving Thanks

Another Thanksgiving celebration is upon us, and, once again, it is important that we focus on the historical meaning of this important holiday and how it relates to our Polonian ancestors. We must begin, of course, in the Autumn of 1621 when the pilgrims, after landing in Plymouth, Massachusetts, gave thanks for surviving their first winter in a new land. …

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The Shockwave of May 3rd, 1791

OUR POLONIA  On May 3rd the Poles recall that day in 1791 when their country acquired a constitution, the second in the world, after the United States supreme law adopted in 1789.   Drafted at a crucial moment in the history of Poland, the May 3rd Constitution was a harbinger of subsequent developments in constitutional law. Its progressive postulates could not …

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