Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Tag: History

You are Here :
Poland - Polish - Polonia, Saints and Martyrs, ,

St. Barbara’s Day

St. Barbara Day (Barbórka)Credit for this article to Barbórka, Miners’ Day (St. Barbara Day), December 4th at PolishSite is celebrated by miners across Poland on her commemoration, December 4th. St. Barbara is a patron of coal miners.

Miners dress in special uniforms during Barbórka. The uniform consists of black suit and hat with a feather. The color of the feather (white, red or black) depends on the rank of the miner. Miners wear their decorative uniforms not only during Barborka but also for weddings, funerals and other important political or social ceremonies.

Photo courtesy of Interia

Barbórka is celebrated with Miners’ Balls. Miners from coal-mines of Silesia and Zaglebie do not work underground during this day but participate in festivities. A big Ball takes place each year in Kraków’s University of Mining and Metallurgy (AGH).

Barbórka is celebrated not only in Poland but also in other countries of the region with strong mining tradition like in Germany and in Czech Republic. In Germany the celebration is called “Barbarafeier”.

St. Barbara is not only a patron of coal-miners but also a patron of geologists, mathematicians and many others professions. Her patronage is linked with the fact that according to the legend she was imprisoned in a tall tower. Her imprisonment led to association with variety of construction professions. Her festivities take place in geological institutes and universities of Germany and Austria. St. Barbara is also connected strongly with the Orthodox Church’s tradition.

To prevent accidents miners used to build chapels devoted to their patron, St. Barbara. St. Barbara is also a very celebrated nameday in Poland because Barbara is a popular feminine name.

We had in Poland over hundred mines! Besides black and brown coal also copper and silver are excavated and also salt. But salt miners have their own patron, St. Kinga. St. Kinga’s feast is on July 24th.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

The faith divide and a giant Jesus in Poland

From The Guardian: Poland’s faith divide: Ignited by the Smolensk crash, bitter tensions have emerged between Poland’s Catholics and liberal secularists

When 96 Polish dignitaries, including President Lech Kaczyński, were killed in a plane crash near Smolensk in April, the world briefly turned its gaze to Poland and its often tragic history. The victims were travelling to a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre – the murder of some 20,000 Poles by the Soviet secret police in 1940. The two tragedies became fused in the public imagination, reviving old anti-Russian prejudices and seeing the memorials to Katyn across Poland become the focus of fresh mourning. But the events that followed, and their consequences for Poland’s religious culture, have been little-covered in western Europe. The last six months have seen a bitter controversy emerge, raising serious questions about the place of religion in Polish public life.

Despite its image as one of the most homogeneously Catholic countries in Europe, Poland’s early history was one of religious diversity, with large Jewish and Orthodox populations, and the later founding of the Uniate church, making for a variety of traditions. The Warsaw Confederation of 1573 formalised a religious tolerance that had long been in existence and which had seen the country become a refuge for Protestants. The violence and extremism of the Reformation was hardly seen in Poland, and the country gained a reputation as an intellectual powerhouse in eastern Europe. With the arrival of the Jesuits in the late 16th century, however, the country experienced increasing Catholic dominance. The 1724 Tumult of Toruń, when Protestants ransacked a Jesuit collegium and were horribly executed for defiling Catholic images, marked a waning of religious tolerance. Finally, when Poland was carved up by competing empires in the late 18th century, Catholicism became a surrogate for nationalism in a fragmented country. It is the legacy of this that the country still deals with today.

The “cross controversy” that followed the Smolensk crash and dominated Polish headlines this summer was evidence of the intimate intertwining of Polish national identity and Catholic devotion. Threats to remove the large cross set up in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw as a memorial to the pro-church Kaczyński brought out conservative Catholic protestors in force. Styling themselves as “cross-defenders” and “true Poles”, they staged a round-the-clock vigil at a makeshift shrine. For a full month they could be found there kneeling in prayer, or blasting patriotic songs from a tinny stereo, holding their hands aloft in the victory sign that came to symbolise the Solidarność-led freedom movement in communist-era Poland.

The shrine provided a snapshot of the essence of contemporary Polish Catholic culture. Images of Pope John Paul II, Saint Faustina’s Christ of the Divine Mercy, Father Jerzy Popiełuszko and Our Lady of Czestochowa appeared alongside photos of Kaczyński, indicating his rapid transformation into a quasi-religious hero of the Catholic right. Popiełuszko, a political dissident murdered by the communist regime, and the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, mutilated by a Hussite heretic and later the miraculous defeater of invading Swedes, both carry strong messages about heroic Polish resistance to foreign foes and the threats posed to Catholics by unbelievers. Like in the equating of Katyn and Smolensk, historical specificity is erased to make universal symbols of Polish suffering, and at this shrine Catholicism was articulated as the essence of Poland’s history and nationhood.

But the cross controversy’s reaffirmation of conservative Catholic identity was met by an opposing force. Objecting to this overtly religious symbol at the seat of government, secularists and atheists were galvanised into action, staging a rally to call for the removal of the cross. Organised via the Akcja Krzyz (Cross Action) group on Facebook, this protest was dominated by a younger generation who were looking back to Poland’s history of liberalism and the prizing of enlightenment values. With the founding of the Polish Association of Rationalists in 2005, as well as the staging of an atheist “coming out” march in Kraków in October 2009 (repeated to great success just two weeks ago), another strand of Polish identity is emerging.

In mid-September, the Smolensk cross was finally removed. The shrine was cleared away, but the passions that built it are far from diffused and other controversies threaten to reawaken the conflict between conservative Catholics and secularist liberals. The atheist movement continues to grow, and there are also signs of greater religious diversity in the country, with an Islamic cultural centre planned for Warsaw, and more mosques being built across Poland. But hardline Catholic views also remain strong … Meanwhile, in a bold statement of Poland’s Catholic identity, the town of Świebodzin in the west of the country is building the biggest statue of Jesus in the world…

This article covers a lot of territory and hits the highlights of Polish religious and ethnic diversity very well. What Poland had been, for most of its history, was a welcoming and diverse country where the right to freedom of thought and conscience were protected. Much of that changed with the 18th century divisions of Poland. Poles were faced with rabid anti-Polish policies enacted in the German and Russian controlled sections of Poland (nationalism as well as religious and linguistic unity were the protective backlash), policies that pitted one ethnic group against the next in the Austrio-Hungarian controlled territories (which shored up the Empire’s control since the natives were too busy fighting each other to fight against the Empire), the murder of 6 million Catholic and Jewish Poles by Nazi Germany, and the subsequent shifting of borders leading to a more homogenous state. The result of the last 196 years is exactly the national mythos that exists today. Those who understand the longer and wider 1,044 year history of Poland know that it citizens achieve the greatest in human endeavor from diversity.

On the giant Jesus… what upsets me is not the fact of the statue, but the motivations behind it. The great buildings, cathedrals, monuments and such were always constructed to the glory of God and the memory of others. Not so much in this case! Underpaid and cheated workers building a statute to attract tourist money on a shaky foundation; not exactly a tribute to our God and King. Local newspaper editor Waldemar Roszczuk gets it right: “It’s a monster of a statue which has nothing to do with Christian teaching.” Amen!

Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

Chicago area commemoration honors Poland

President Kaczynski Way Opened in Chicago
By Raymond Rolak

Chicago– Lech Aleksander Kaczyński, the former Polish President killed in the recent Smolensk, Russia plane crash, had a street named in his memory in Chicago. It will be on the the Avenue of Honor. The street will be run at the crossing of Belmont – Central avenues in a very popular and historic area of Portage Park.

At the first intersection near Belmont – Central, a ceremonial unveiling of a plaque with the name of the street Lech Kaczynski Way was unveiled. During the ceremony, a special letter from Jaroslaw Kaczynski was read by the cousin of the president, Jan Tomaszewski.

Daniel Pogorzelski of the Historical Society North-West Chicago got the campaign started for the street naming. Two councilmen, Ariel Reboyras and Thomas Allen helped. The greatest support was from the Mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley.

The district around the streets of Belmont and Central Park was known colloquially as Wladyslawowo. One of the central points of the area was the Catholic parish church of St. Ladislaus. Another reminder of those old, romantic days is nearby Frederic Chopin Park. For those families that come from the old Polish neighborhood, everything there has been preserved from the times of their fathers and grandfathers. It is a reminder of the old-city in Chicago. A time of past American-Polonia, busia and dzia-dzia fond memories.

The intersection of Belmont Avenue and Central Park is more than a hundred years old and the neighborhood was made up of mostly Polish immigrants.

Representatives of Polish-American organizations, with Alderman Ariel Reboyras from the 30th Ward, celebrated the naming and dedication of Lech Kaczynski Way in Chicago. The street signs are in the historic Portage Park Polish neighborhood. Photo by: Teresa B. Buckner
Art, Poetry, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

Writing of interest

Articles on Polish and Polish-American history by Martin S. Nowak from the Polish Culture Newsletter, No. 121:

Poles Developed Early Television:

It has recently become fashionable to credit the invention of television to the American Philo T. Farnsworth. But the truth is, modern television was not so much a single invention by a single person, but a long process of interdependent discoveries. Many scientists from different countries and backgrounds contributed to its development. Among them were Poles…

John Quincy Adams, future US President, visiting Silesia:

In the year 1800, John Quincy Adams, the U.S. Minister to Prussia, undertook a two month tour of Silesia, then part of Prussia. He detailed his experiences in a series of letters to his brother. It was a thoroughly German area in that time (Western Silesia) that Adams visited, yet it is interesting to note the observations of a distinguished American, later President of the United States, of this region. Silesia, during its complicated history, was in centuries past a part of Poland and is currently a part of that nation, comprising its southwestern region.

Starting by horse-drawn coach from his residence in Berlin, Adams’ first stop in what is now Polish territory was at Gruenberg, today the city of Zielona Gora. Noting its cloth mills and vineyards, Adams and his party, which included his wife and two servants, continued on their carriage ride deeper to Silesia. Their first stop in the province was at Bunzlau. There, Adams observed the main industry of the town. Even today it is famous, for the Polish name of this place is Boleslawiec, home of the world renowned Boleslawiec pottery…

Littlepage: American Citizen, Polish Statesman:

Lewis Littlepage was a young American who was a figure in the final years of the Kingdom of Poland. He was born in Virginia in 1762 into a well-connected family and at seventeen was sent to Madrid to live in the household of John Jay, U.S. Minister to Spain. There, he furthered his education in politics and foreign diplomacy in a hands-on manner.

In 1781 he joined the Spanish army and served with distinction against the British in Gibraltar. Two years later the French General Lafayette accompanied him to Paris, and Littlepage was introduced to the French royal court where he made a favorable impression.

In 1784, Littlepage traveled across Europe with a French prince who was married to a Polish woman. In Poland, he became acquainted with the leading social and political families and was personally introduced to King Stanisław August Poniatowski. Littlepage made an immediate impression upon the king, for he was charming, witty and intelligent bordering on genius. They shared an interest in books and liberal ideas. King Stanisław admired all things American, and Littlepage’s friendship with Lafayette and knowledge of France and Spain appealed to him. The king offered Littlepage a position in his court…

Poetry and Memory from Dr. John Guzlowski:

The website Editions Bibliotekos features a short personal essay Dr. Guzlowski wrote about his changing attitudes toward his parents and their experiences as Polish slave laborers in Nazi Germany in Truth Teller – John Guzlowski.

For the last thirty years, I’ve been writing about my parents and their experiences during World War II. I’ve written about how my dad spent four years in Buchenwald, a concentration camp in Germany, and how my mother survived the day the Nazis raped and killed her mother and her sister but was taken to a slave labor camp in Germany. I’ve written about this and so many other things that happened to my mother and father first in Poland when the Nazis invaded, then in Germany where my parents were imprisoned, and finally in America after the war.

But growing up, I never thought I would…

…and a piece about the importance of patience in writing in Writing is an Incremental Art:

When you’re a writer, there are bad days and good days. Some days, you sit and write, and the words feel like they’re in someone else’s head; and some days, you write and the writing is fast and right, and you think that each word is a gift from some muse that really and completely loves and cares for you and what you have to say.

That’s the way it is for all of us, I think, but one of the things that I’ve come to feel about writing on bad days as well as good ones is that the progress, the movement forward, the work, is…

Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

National Independence Day (Narodowe Święto Niepodległości)

On November 18, 1918, after 123 years of occupation, the Polish state was reborn and regained its independence. November 11th marked the end of World War I and the defeat of all three occupiers. Russia was plunged into the confusion of revolution and civil war, the multinational Austro-Hungarian monarchy, held together by its government’s perpetuation of inter-ethnic conflicts as a means to divide and conquer, fell apart and went into decline. The Germans, of course, lost and were punished.

For Poles was their opportunity to reclaim their right as a nation, something they had continually fought for since they were invaded by the three occupying powers.

Marshal Józef Piłsudski speaking to the to the Polish people in a radio broadcast on November 11th, 1926 speaks about November 11th 1918 (originally posted here).

“Two dear little ones are sitting by me and begging for a tale. So I will tell the ladies and gentlemen a tale for children and grown-ups alike. “As much happiness as in a dream, as much truth as in a song.” So one man wrote, and we who read sometimes believe him and sometimes not. But today I tell you truly that there are charms and spells, so long as we are happy. Once I saw a crowd of children bending over something on the ground. Wondering what they could find to look at in a dirty courtyard, I espied a little frog. Filthy and frightened the frog hopped clumsily on its long legs and glared at the children with its goggle eyes.

“What are you gazing at?” I asked the little ones. One lad answered that he had read of a frog which was jumping about in the dirt, but suddenly by charms and spells, there came a great golden chariot drawn by six big horses. Six big lackeys held their bridles, and from the chariot ladies alighted dressed too gorgeously for words. They took a box from the chariot, and – oh! Charms and spells! The frog turned suddenly into a magic maiden, with lovely eyes and countenance.

The maiden looked at herself and marveled. For her robes were gleaming with pearly-white and rose color shot with gold and silver. Snow-white stockings covered her legs, which had been red with gold, but now were so warm that they gleamed like white marble through the silk. The dirty frog, transformed into a charming maiden took her place in the chariot and drove to a great white palace. The parquet mirrored her beauty, and maidens yellow with envy, whispered that she was an evil changeling. So there are charms and spells when a maiden is happy. They say that on earth there are no such tales.

I do not know if fairy-tales are true, but it is true that there are charms and spells when one is happy. I have heard with my own ears, I have seen with my own eyes, I have touched with my own fingers such charms and spells that of them I fear to speak. None of us, indeed, may have seen the dear child who was picking strawberries and suddenly espied a forest where, instead of branches, the trees grew cakes, ready to break off and eat. Who has seen the child who, as he hopped, found himself in an enchanted garden where magic birds chirped joyously between themselves? Or the dear girl in that garden where big juicy pears came of their own accord to her lips and red apples dropped into her pocket? Such, I believe, exist, and I will tell you about the wonder of wonders that I have touched and seen.

On a bright November day, not many years ago, along a road drowned everywhere in mud, a short grey serpent of lads big and small pressed forward. Like the clumsy frog, they wearily stumbled on, often stamping with frozen legs on the grey and marshy track. Poor fellows! They were hunched up and trembling with cold, their eyes dimmed by a toilsome night and many toilsome days. Their feet, soaked through their worn-out, mud-caked shoes, stumbled over the ground, lingering as though they clung to it for a moment’s rest. On the eleventh of November, they found themselves somewhere under the walls of Krakow. Before them rode another lad – rode on a young chestnut with a white-starred head.

The chestnut, daughter of the meadows, went mincingly into the town whence came those ragged lads, who now, as dirty as the earth itself, marched in. They had marched the whole night long, with death always staring them in the face. They had marched through the gate of death, through its strait and stifling portal. Like the frog, they longed to stumble into safety – safety within the walls of Krakow. But the country chestnut with the hairless head gazed on the city with disgust. When she reached the first houses, a scarecrow lorry came along, groaning and hissing, and she jibbed in terror. The lad upon her back caressed her and began to tell her of charms and spells. “Fear not, chestnut,” he murmured, “you are going into the capital, where thousands will gaze upon your lovely neck and golden hair.” For in Krakow there are charms and spells when a lad is happy, whether they be in the twin-towered church, or in the mighty bell, or in the crypt where kings for ever sleep, or in the hero’s or the poet’s tomb.

Not many years passed by, and the same chestnut gazed upon the same city on a new eleventh of November. Charm on charm and spell on spell – where were the grey and dirty lads, and where their leader? The same leader, but see how he has changed! On his breast as many stars as there are countries in the world. Trumpets and drums sounded as the infantry, in their steel helmets, marched firmly by, and the heavy guns made the windows rattle as they passed. An enchanted world, transformed!

But my time is up, and I must close with a wish for the next eleventh of November. Even if the month brings storms which roar in the chimney and shriek of death and terror, I know that restoration of the body and the soul’s rebirth give strength and beauty. In them we find an inward warmth which baffles the damp and poison. And may you smile then as on the magic eleventh of November in 1918! May the autumn sun burn your cheeks and a gentle breeze cool them, and may we laugh together from happiness at being great-souled and reborn! This, men and women and dear children, I wish you all.” — Marshal Józef Piłsudski

Art, Events, Media, Poetry, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Xpost to PGF, , , , , , , , ,

Catching up with the Cosmopolitan Review

The Cosmopolitan Review is published by the alumni of Poland in the Rockies, a biennial symposium in Polish studies held at Canmore, Alberta, Canada. Here is a video from last summer’s sessions:

Each Review is a wealth of information on everything from books to politics, history to poetry. The following are links to articles from the Summer 2010 and Fall 2010 editions I thought you might find interesting and enlightening:

Summer 2010, Vol. 2, No. 2

Poland

… And beyond

Art

Essays

Books & Docs

Poetry

From the Past Into the Present

Fall 2010 Vol. 2, No. 3

Poles & Poland

… And beyond

Books, language, poetry…

Media, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, ,

Setting the record straight

From the Kosciuszko Foundation and the American Center of Polish Culture: Please sign the petition demanding that the media stop calling “Auschwitz” a “Polish concentration camp.”

The Kosciuszko Foundation has posted a petition on it’s web site demanding that the media stop using libelous phrases such as “Polish concentration camps” and “Polish death camps,” which amounts to a form of Holocaust revisionism. News outlets that use these defamatory phrases are teaching new generations of impressionable newspaper readers, and the general public, that the Holocaust was carried out by Poles rather than Nazi Germany.

Poland did not exist from September 1939 until 1945. German maps from this time period show that the camps were built in “The Greater German Reich,” and the “General Government” area which were part of Hitler’s German expansion to the eastern conquered territories. The camps were established by Germans, run by Germans, and guarded by Germans. The Nazis gave them German names like “Auschwitz” and hung German words over the entrance, “Arbeit macht frei.”

Please assist in sending a message to media companies: They must stop using use these historically erroneous phrases. Please let the media hear our outrage about this by signing the petition.

Fundacja Kościuszkowska rozpoczęła akcję zbierania podpisów pod petycją do mediów, aby przestały używać określenia “polskie obozy koncentracyjne”.

– Jeśli nie narobimy hałasu, nic się nie zmieni. Jeśli Polacy chcą, aby świat myślał, że obozy koncentracyjne są naszym dziełem, to niech siedzą cicho. Jeśli chcemy przekonać wszystkich, że były to obozy niemieckie, nie siedźmy z założonymi rękami i podpiszmy petycję” – apeluje prezes Fundacji Kościuszkowskiej Alex Storożyński.

Media, Perspective, , , ,

The business cycle – what happens to the entrenched

From the New Yorker: Blockbuster, Netflix, and the future of rentals in The Next Level by James Surowiecki

An interesting read. In a few paragraphs he captures how companies can become entrenched and beholden to a model whose day has passed. Will Netflix be next?

In the nineteen-eighties, a new kind of chain store came to dominate American shopping: the “category killer.” These stores killed off all competition in a category by stocking a near-endless variety of products at prices that small retailers couldn’t match. Across America, independent stores went out of business, and the suburban landscape became freckled with Toys R Us, CompUSA, and Home Depot superstores. But the category killers’ reign turned out to be more fragile than expected. In the past decade, CompUSA and Circuit City have disappeared. Toys R Us has struggled to stay afloat, and Barnes & Noble is in the midst of a boardroom battle prompted by financial woes. And, last month, Blockbuster finally admitted the inevitable and declared Chapter 11.

The obvious reason for all this is the Internet; Blockbuster’s demise, for one, was inextricably linked to the success of Netflix. But this raises a deeper question: why didn’t the category killers colonize the Web the way they colonized suburbia? That was what pundits expected. Companies like Blockbuster, the argument went, had customer expertise, sophisticated inventory management, and strong brands. And, unlike the new Internet companies, they’d be able to offer customers both e-commerce and physical stores—“clicks and mortar.” It seemed like the perfect combination.

The problem—in Blockbuster’s case, at least—was that the very features that people thought were strengths turned out to be weaknesses…

Poland - Polish - Polonia, Xpost to PGF, , , , ,

Happy Name day Generał

October 28, is a Special Names Day Celebration
By Raymond Rolak

October 28, is Name Day for people named Thaddeus and thus, General Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a good reason to celebrate for sure. His ideals were lofty and he prized honor and liberty for all.

In Poland, Names Day celebrations are customary. Like a ‘Birthday Party’ in America, one would celebrate with friends and family on the feast day of the Saint one is named after. On October 28, because of his cherished celebrity and honored courage, everyone considers themselves ‘Tad.’ Tadeusz Kosciuszko, that is.

After his exploits in the American Revolution, Kosciuszko returned to Poland to help restore the Polish borders.

After Poland passed the May 3, Constitution in 1791, it was attacked by Russia, Prussia and Austria who wanted to stop these democratic reforms. King Stanislaw Augustus created the Virtuti Militari medal to honor the Polish soldiers, who had fought to defend the first democratic constitution in Europe. But the Poles lost the war, and the Russians demanded that these medals not be worn or displayed.

While the officers who received this honor took the medals off their chests, they sent the blue with black ribbons from these honors to their wives and girlfriends, who used them to tie their hair in ponytails.

On Oct 28, 1792, Prince Czartoryski held a Names Day party (imieniny) at his palace for the name’s day of Tadeusz. General Kosciuszko was celebrated. The women wore white dresses with black and blue sashes and tied their hair in ponytails with the medal ribbons. The women also made a garland crown of leaves from an oak tree planted 100 years earlier by King Sobieski, and placed it on Kosciuszko’s head to honor him.

General Kosciuszko was described by Thomas Jefferson as the “Purest son of Liberty”. When Kosciuszko died he left his money and property in America for the freeing and education of slaves. George Washington commented, “He served America with courage and distinction.”

Because October is Polish Heritage Month in America, remember to be Tad that day. Wear a blue and black ribbon. Remember parents, grand-parents and all those who came before us. Remember the sacrifices of veterans, teachers, mentors and most of all, remember the examples of Kosciuszko. “Happy Names Day- Tadeusz.”

Christian Witness, Events, PNCC, ,

Our Savior PNCC celebrates 80 years

From Mosinee Today: Church celebrates 80 years

Starting out truly as a “church in the wildwood” by a few Polish families in the town of Ried, this month Our Savior Polish National Catholic Church in Mosinee is celebrating its 80th anniversary.

Newly elected Bishop Anthony Kopka will visit Saturday to celebrate with the parish at the 5:30 p.m. Mass. Following the service, an evening meal, prepared by the members, will be served. The public is welcome.

For the past 20 years, the leader of Our Savior’s flock is The Rev. Marion Talaga, who is originally from Poland… Talaga is also is the pastor of St. Mary Parish in Lublin and Holy Cross Mission near Pulaski.

Our Savior has been growing aggressively to meet its needs. A home next to the church building was purchased for use as a rectory, new classroom area and handicapped accessibility added, the church worship area renovated and the lower level social gathering space updated.

According to the Polish National Catholic Church website, the church was founded in 1897 in Scranton, PA. Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, people who are divorced and remarried are openly welcomed to receive the Eucharist, a priest can choose to be married and all [baptized] believers are invited to partake in the reception of Holy Communion.

Our Savior’s is at 804 Jackson St., one block south of the high school and two blocks east of the Rec Center.

Weekend masses are at 5:30 p.m. Saturday evening and 10:30 a.m. Sunday. A social hour follows all Sunday masses.

All Right Reserved © 2005 - 2023