How Poland celebrated Christmas in the 1960s and 1970s is the subject of a fascinating new exhibition organised by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
Whilst Święty Mikołaj (Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus) still remains the most widespread, families in some parts of Poland recognise visits from Gwiazdor (‘Starman’), Dziadek Mróz (Grandfather Frost), Aniołek (the Angel), Dzieciątko (the child) and Gwiazdka (star).
On the last three days of December, men in the village of Sławatycze dress up in carefully crafted costumes, wear fake beards and chase young women and children with sticks to say goodbye to the old year. But no one can remember how or when it started.
The UNESCO recognised tradition of making stunningly intricate and colourful models of nativity scenes set within the Kraków cityscape dates back to the 19th century when the idea was initiated one winter among local unemployed bricklayers and carpenters.
For a minority, the essence of the weekend rests in the foggy little bars that were established during Communism. Though fast dwindling in number, and left utterly winded by the lockdown, these have tapped a new wave of fans among a small group of people.
Using over 1.2 tonnes of gingerbread dough, 120kg of honey, 28kg of ground spices, 32kg of icing sugar and 312 eggs, the model town features 300 intricately and colourfully decorated houses, two moving chocolate trains, a Christmas tree decorated with coloured icing as well as Santa Claus and other characters.
With its mix of party and prophecy, the celebration of St Andrew’s is littered with rich and ancient cultural traditions.
Based in the headquarters of the internationally acclaimed folk song and dance ensemble ‘Mazowsze’, the centre’s permanent exhibition will show the entirety of Polish folklore in all its regional variants and how each region differs in its folkloric traditions.
Exactly 100 years after its first brewery opened and half a decade after it stopped production, beer enthusiast and home brewer Michał Rawski (L) and pub owner Tomasz Kirsz (R) have just opened Kluczbork’s first craft beer brewery, Miastolas (literally City Forest).
Historically from the Beskid and Pieniny highlands around Beskid Sądecki, Beskid Niski and parts of the Pienin mountains, the Lemkos were displaced from their native lands in 1947 and resettled in Western Poland as part of ‘Operation Vistula’, the Communist authority’s forced resettlement of several ethnic minorities from the south-east of post-war Poland to the reclaimed territories in the west of the country.
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