The very beginning of spring had already been celebrated in Polish territory in the times of paganism and was associated among the former Slavs with the so-called Jare Gody, a several-day Slavic ritual spring festival that was a farewell to winter and a welcome to spring . It is an ancient pagan tradition held in Poland on the Easter Monday. The origins of the tradition date back to the pre-Christian era, when the sacrificial rites of pagans took place. Furthermore you should know polish words - " Na zdrowie! Bread and Salt Tradition. Marzanna. The cake is typically made with pound cake batter in a cast-iron mold . "Lulajze Jezuniu" from Scherzo in B minor, Op. Here are some ideas: Polish brides usually wore a lush wreath of fresh flowers and rosemary in their hair. Wianki (or, in English, Wreaths) is a Polish holiday event that takes its roots in the pre-Christian tradition of celebrating summer solstice as a day of fire, water, fertility, love and joy. The drowning of Marzanna occurs on the first day of spring. Polish Myths And Legends SlideShare. Despite their religious beliefs, several Polish traditions are rooted in Pagan rites. Unfortunately they were too much erudite. An effigy of Marzanna, the goddess of the winter seasons, is taken to the riverbank and thrown into the water. In all traditions, circles can be made of with lighted candles, drawing circles in the soil, or with natural objects and tools. Though ask anyone about the significance of this custom, and they are likely to say: "dunno, this is . Christmas in Poland is a major annual celebration, as in most countries of the Christian world. Christmas in Poland is a major annual celebration, as in most countries of the Christian world. The most common decorating technique is so called wax-flowing or wax-melting. Some examples. Pisanki (Polish Easter Eggs): A Polish Tradition. Every year around 21 st and 22 nd of June, when the nights were extra short and the June solstice arrived, pagan people celebrated fire, water, fertility, love and joy - quite a pagan alternative to modern-day Valentine's! Over the centuries, Christmas has gained the title of the most special and meaningful day for Poles. Festivals? Yes, there are still pagan customs still alive and celebrated in Poland. Poles are Slavic, Lithuanians are Baltic, and their langu. As far as I know, many of the Polish pagan cultures were destroyed with Christianity. In Poland, like in many other countries, we celebrate St. Andrew's Day. Culinary traditions- Polish culinary traditions vary depending on the region, but traditionally 12 dishes are served to reflect the number of Apostles. Marzanna is the Polish name for a Slavic goddess associated with death, winter and nature. Wianki, the pagan celebration of the coming of warmer seasons was replaced with St. John's Night; The Christian 'All Saints Day' replaced the Slavic Forefathers' Eve - a pagan holiday celebrating pagan gods and deities; The rituals dedicated to the dark mother Mokosz were replaced with the Christian variety called 'the miracle of Black Madonna' This bread and salt welcome has a symbolic purpose. That's why, among the many religious organisations registered in Poland, one of the biggest is now the Native Slavic Faith - the beliefs of the olden days. Wianki - ancient Polish tradition in modern times. In the Pagan people group, there are a number of various spiritual belief frameworks, or customs, that fall under the different headings of Wiccan, Neo-Wiccan or Pagan. Here are probably the most regularly examined bunches that you may discover as you meet individuals of various Wiccan or Neo . Poland's culture is rich in traditions that celebrate the coming of spring and the Easter season. The tradition started by burning the straw doll and drowned it in the river afterward. Some of those pagan ways survive in modified versions even now, like topienie Marzanny (the drowning of Marzanna, Marzanna is in genitive in the Polish phrase) for example. Easter is major holiday in Poland, and Easter celebrations are not limited to Easter Sunday. Tweet. Wianki: Polish Midsummer: Student Observations. Adherents tend to use a reconstructionist methodology to rebuild their native faith, which has not spread through the English-speaking world as widely as some other European-based Heathen religions. Kukeri are men who take part in an ancient Bulgarian pagan tradition to scare away the evil spirits of winter. Notwithstanding, numerous essentially recognize as customs of witchcraft, inside the Wiccan framework. The drowning of Marzanna occurs on the first day of spring. Horsedrawn carriages were traditional at Polish weddings -- the bride and groom used to ride to and from the ceremony this way, with the wedding guests following after them to the reception by foot. The aim of this pagan ritual is to chase off winter and encourage the return of springtime. TWH: I understand some officials in the Polish government . FIND OUT MORE For many centuries, pagan religions had officially disappeared from European countries. " what is mean "Cheers!". Easter eggs are in Polish called jajka wielkanocne. While some of these customs are still practiced, they have morphed over time to reflect the present along with the past. Participants watch her "drown." The oldest Polish Christmas carol is "Be Healthy Angel King" and comes from 1420. It's the day of the winter solstice, when the shortest day . The Bible Another explanation is rooted in the New Testament. It is an old pagan ritual in which an effigy of a woman . "migus-Dyngus", also known as Wet Monday is a day that cuts a splash throughout the whole country with water drenching or sprinkling a part of a playful holiday. The name pisanki comes from the word "pisac" means "to write" or "to print". Wianki - ancient Polish tradition in modern times. There are a few traces of it in documents from X-XIII century left by monks or priests trying to convert folk and expel any superstitions, old wives' tales or pagan rites. Special kits for painting eggs with a funneled pen . Tradition also states that the first Polish ruler Prince Mieszko The First (960-992), along with his court was baptized on Easter Monday in 966. One celebrates an Obiat (a feast) in memory of the deceased. Marzanna. Slavic pagan mythology in Witcher 3. It is rich in meat, especially beef, chicken and pork, and winter vegetables (cabbage in the dish - bigos), and spices. 4. The art of pisanki is cultivated in Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania and many other East and Central European countries. Christmas is a time of year for feasts, caroling, decorating, gift-giving, and Christian ceremonies, but the history of these traditions is, in fact, pagan. While this may be the case, the matter is rather more complicated than just that. Anecdotal, but I do know of a handful of Poles that have expressed a desire to learn about Slavic deities and the pagan traditions, including myself. Called "witch" in certain eras, these Shamans have magical gifts and sacred abilities that tend focus on healing, seership, herbalism and relations with nature. Most of the Poles try to go to the church for the mass, where priests mark their heads with a cross of ashes while saying: Remember, man thou art dust and to dust thou shall return". In Poland, it took root in the 13th-15th centuries, and the tradition was to go door to door between 26 December (the second day of Christmas, or St. Steven's Day) through to Candlemas on 2 February (Dziura 56). Image Aron Klein. The observance of Christmas developed gradually over the centuries, beginning in ancient times; combining old pagan customs with the religious ones introduced after the Christianization of Poland by the Catholic Church.Later influences include mutual permeating of . Polish Easter eggs, called pisanki, are decorated with intricate designs using a wax resist before they are dyed with several coats of different colored dyes. Four to five food courses along with appetizers, cakes, pastries and fruit. 2. 7. Christmas customs . At midnight the bride moved from single youth women to married a woman. Christmas itself began as a Roman pagan festival called Saturnalia. Within these Molfar are also a rare few who are born to enter a . It is happened where the bride sits in the middle and the rest of . Ash Wednesday: The Polish Easter celebrations, begin with Ash Wednesday. The Christmas customs combine old Polish pagan folklore with the Catholic traditions introduced after the Christianization of Poland in 966. Many Pagan winter solstice traditions and customs created around Yule are identified with Christmas today. The food comes in plenty from dumplings, herring in oil, and vegetable salads. This holiday is still celebrated in Krakw today. It's the night before the Winter Solstice. Rodzimy Koci Polski (ENG: Native Polish Church) emerged as a registered religious organisation 1995, as people who associated less with Roman Catholicism became curious . Read "Spider's Yule Gift: A Children's FolkTale and Polish Pagan Holiday Traditions" by Lionrhod available from Rakuten Kobo. It has its roots in old Slavic traditions of throwing water on people in rites meaning to purify them for the arrival of spring. following are pierogi - either potato cheese or cabbage and mushroom - a few dishes with fish (karp is most popular), and an assortment of other dishes including: kutia (a dish of cooked wheat, poppy seeds, raisins, and almonds), kluski z makiem (noodles with poppyseed, honey, and raisins), cabbage with mushrooms, and fried croquettes with Easter comes with spring and it is the most significant Christian holiday, also beautifully celebrated in Poland. . The 'Wet Monday' ( migus-Dyngus in Polish) is an Easter tradition where people pour water over each other. Annual Polish Pagan Customs. : 30 : 111 : 309 Associated with it are many specific customs and traditions. Siliniez - A wood god from Poland who moss was sacred; his altar fire was kept burning only with moss. Christmas is one of the most important holidays in Poland, a largely Catholic country with distinctive and somewhat strict traditions. Knocking on wood. The Polish pagan roots are Indoeuropean ones. just now. It consists of fish fillets, vegetables, and a variety of spices and fresh herbs. Polish traditions of the celebration of the dead is on April 30th, the second being on October 31st. Easter is naturally a Christian holiday and commemorates Christ resurrection but it is at the same time inseparably bound with the pagan traditions related to the beginning of spring. They might share certain genetic characteristics - being neighbors, and having been in the same kingdom at one time, this should not surprise anyone. Polish Witchcraft. The dishes may include fish or red beetroot soup, carp, pasta with poppy mass, jellied fish, herring in cream or oil, or Kutia - a wheat pudding with poppy seed, honey, and nuts. . . Some even go as far as pagan times before Catholicism enveloped the country. Wianki is celebrated each year in June and is a Midsummer festival marking the . Easter-related traditions take place for more than a week in Poland. Fried Carp ( Karp Smaony) Fried carp is a national food of Poland, though it is eaten only once a yearon Christmas Eve. There's something special about Midsummer celebrations in Scandinavia; the bright light long into the night, the blue skies, the flowers, the food, and the joy. Text Elena Sergova. The Hands of God - a common Pagan Slavic symbol A 'pagan reaction' of a different kind has also emerged in the last few decades, though this one has been non-violent. Easter has been celebrated in Poland since the country's Christianization in the Middle Ages. 5. After the church ceremony concludes, the wedding couple makes their way to their venue for the party where they are welcomed by their parents with bread and salt. New life A child in a hammock-cradle, the 1960s, photo: Chris Niedenthal / Forum The technique for making pisanki is quite tedious and involved, producing beautifully detailed designs. And Polish Easter, besides the spiritual factor, is mostly that. Pisanki (Polish Easter Eggs): A Polish Tradition. Customs Folklores Traditions Polish American Journal. The origin of Adrzejki, which is what we call it, is pagan but we applied a Catholic name to be more acceptable for Catholic society. . " Oczepiny " in Poland it is a name for one of the most important polish wedding traditions. They are symbols of hospitality and conjugal harmony. Example : Polish SLD. Koldowanie, as it is known in Polish, is actually a pagan tradition and is not limited to Poland. by torino; January 13, 2020 January 13, . Traditional Polish fish soup is a true fasting dish and also quite easy to make. During the period of Poland's partitions, it was also an important patriotic observance, reminding Poles . While some of these customs are still practiced, they have morphed over time to reflect the present along with the past. It is widely believed that the Christian All-Saints Day or All-Souls' Day (zaduszki) replaced the ancient Polish pagan traditions. . Despite the strong Catholic character of modern Poland, some pagan traditions have endured. One of the most blithely bizarre and eyebrow-raising is the spring equinox celebration known as the Drowning of Marzanna (Topienie Marzanny).Marzanna is the Polish incarnation of the old Slavic goddess of winter, plague and death.Fearing her icy grasp, the best way for superstitious Slavs to protect . But recently, thousands of people seem to be flocking back to the traditions of their ancestors. Answer (1 of 3): Are there still pagan customs in Poland? It could even be buckets of water (perhaps we know the inspiration for the Ice Bucket. The host leaves an empty chair for the deceased and sweeps it away before everyone sits at the table to excuse the soul who isn't there. But poor Spide. The technique for making pisanki is quite tedious and involved, producing beautifully detailed designs. POLISH CHRISTMAS. The Hands of God - a common Pagan Slavic symbol A 'pagan reaction' of a different kind has also emerged in the last few decades, though this one has been non-violent. Poland's culture is rich in traditions that celebrate the coming of spring and the Easter season. In Polish tradition, guests rained oats . Anthropology: The Pagan History of Christmas and Its Traditions. On this day, boys try to catch girls by surprise by splashing them with water. A relic of the pagan Dziady ceremony is the Rkawka holiday, which derives its name from a man-made mound which eggs were rolled up, as a symbol of resurrection. 5. It is an old pagan ritual in which an effigy of a woman . Like many pagan traditions (such as the Germanic pagan tree that became the Christmas tree), the Slavic tradition of painting eggs and the hunts for those eggs were absorbed into Christianity and attached to nearby festivals. Gifts Prezenty. April 30th, 2020 - Polish Paganism This page from now defunct okana net The information is too important to simply allow it to disappear How I was able to capture Okana s long expired Most Slavic people worshipped in natural circles and groves; and it plays a large part in all kinds of magic. From Palm Sunday to Wet Monday, this period is marked with religious rites and practices with their origins in pagan times. 21 March 2017. Answer (1 of 14): As others have noted here, no, they're not "basically the same people". December 24th had much significance centuries before Christ's birth. . POLISH CHRISTMAS. Nowadays, migus Dyngus is often an all-day water battle played out . Menus depend on the taste buds of the couple, anything from meats, vegetables, soups. They are used to surround evil or protect oneself from it. Old Polish tradition requires wedding celebrations to be full of food and drinks. Back in the olden days, the Slavs did it in all sorts of pagan ways. Spirits were thought to live in trees. Polish Easter eggs, called pisanki, are decorated with intricate designs using a wax resist before they are dyed with several coats of different colored dyes. Description. Classics feature honey, nuts, beans, barley and beetroot, fruit, fungi and fish (fried herring or carp, or even stuffed pikeperch). Bride and Groom and Their First Dance The party officially starts when the couple comes back from the church and steps to the podium to take their first dance. Pisanki (Pisanky, pysanky) are colored and decorated Easter eggs. The direct link of pagan tradition from the medieval times until now has been broken after the spread out of Catholic religion in Poland, but folk tradition has preserved lots of beliefs such as names of gods and demons with their main features, pagan rites, and magical practices. . The South Slavs, who likely settled in the Balkan Peninsula during the 6th-7th centuries AD, bordering with the Byzantine Empire to the south, came under the sphere of influence of Eastern . Slavs were animistic and believed everything was alive - the trees and plants and rocks - with its own spirit. . It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles , the most . Alina Suchanski explains some of those ancient traditions. Circles -. In Polish tradition, the bread and salt at the reception are ritual food. Traditionally, this dance was literally the first. The pagan Poles bickered with nature Dingen by means of pouring water and switching with willows to make themselves pure and worthy of the coming year. "Oczepiny". Then , it fell into irrelevancy and , while it was officialy disbanded in 2021 , it really just rebranded into the ,,New Left" party , which now gains 2 or 4 % of the popular vote . 8 Polish Traditions for Easter Season. 20 by Frederic Chopin. It's an underfunded area of academic research so hopefully in the future we'll know more. The most popular Pagan path practiced in Poland is Rodzimowierstwo ("native faith"), an indigenous form of Slavic polytheism. The drowning of Marzanna is a pagan farewell-to-winter tradition that occurs on Death Sunday, before Easter. . POLISH TRADITION. It takes you back to the Viking age with its elemental celebration of light and nature. The observance of Christmas developed gradually over the centuries, beginning in ancient times; combining old pagan customs with the religious ones introduced after the Christianization of Poland by the Catholic Church.Later influences include mutual permeating of . All the woodland animals are making gifts for the newborn Sun. As you might expect, a feast takes a lot of preparation so, from Holy Thursday on, many households are busy with kiebasa-making, babka-making, egg-dying, and lamb-cake making. They gather to chant and dance . Every year around 21 st and 22 nd of June, when the nights were extra short and the June solstice arrived, pagan people celebrated fire, water, fertility, love and joy - quite a pagan alternative to modern-day Valentine's! Read several articles about Polish pagan and Easter traditions and habits in Poland. The information is too important to simply allow it to disappear. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. Slavic paganism or Slavic religion is the religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century. The origin of this custom is unknown. In response to the pagan ritual, the Polish . Polish Paganism This page from now defunct okana.net. Knocking on wood was to provoke the attention of good spirits when in need of their . Marzanna doll is traditionally made of straw . It's in that same light that Dyngus Day must be viewed: as an esoteric nod towards the once pagan past of the Polish nation; one in which Easter was a time when these water-based rituals allowed for the amalgamation of important religious fertility celebrations and folksy courtship ceremonies that were, above all, deeply practical for the rural communities of the Slavs. The party Once held the presidency (1995-2005) , assblasting the incumbent President Wasa in 1995 and dominating in the 2000 election. A Molfar () is a Carpathian Shaman in the indigenous traditions of the Hutsul (Ukrainian) culture. Putting a tree of life at home, a ritual feast Jare wito (Spring Festival) - Spring equinox - March 21 Burning a sacred fire, drowning mammon, decorating eggs Noc Kupay (Night of Baths) - Summer solstice - June 21-22 Burning a sacred fire, walking on fire, ritual baths wito Plonw (Harvest Festival) - Autumn equinox Easter in Poland, a public holiday, is one of that country's major holidays, often compared in importance to Christmas. List Of Slavic Mythical Creatures Mythology Wiki Fandom. This is why the coloring and finding of eggs, called Pisanki in Polish, was part of spring festivals such as . Polish national cuisine shares some similarities with other Central and Eastern European traditions as well as French and Italian similarities. Pisanki from different regions of Poland can be distinguished by the unique patters. The drowning of the doll intended to summon the spring by letting the winter drift away in the river. Many of the festivities we observe today come from this . Published: June 13, 2020. It gets especially serious when it comes to food-related events. Pagan spirituality is strongly tied to nature. 11 Feb 2010 #10. PISANKI/Easter eggs colouring Marzanna, the Goddess. POLISH TRADITION. Some say it is a pagan tradition handed down from the earliest settlers in Poland, some claim it reflects Christian rebirth and baptism. Sharing of bread has its roots in pagan traditions and with time, it passed permanently to the Christian traditions. Lent: For Polish Catholics, Lent is the most . Borscht and other soups are de rigueur, as are pierogi (dumpling pies), dishes involving poppy seeds and sled loads of sweets. There are several techniques to make pisanki. In Polish tradition, Christmas Eve is the most important day of Christmas. It does have a slightly different meaning to us, as it took on a part of ancient Polish traditions and customs. Here's a fascinating Polish wedding tradition that may surprise you. Rodzimy Koci Polski (ENG: Native Polish Church) emerged as a registered religious organisation 1995, as people who associated less with Roman Catholicism became curious . Join the English Learning Community. Yes, the Poles really did celebrate Forefathers' Eve . Those runes were a gate to explore the admittedly fragmentary knowledge that currently exists of Polish and Slavic pagan folklore. Traditionally, Midsummer was a pagan celebration of fertility and of light defeating darkness. The reward for 40 days of "giving things up" is an excellent feast after Mass on Easter Sunday. Every year, on the first day of spring, people would make an effigy, set it on fire, and then drown it in a river. You are following some of these old solstice traditions when you decorate your home with a Yule tree, holly or candles.. Pagan winter solstice traditions of Yule are decorating the Yule tree, burning the Yule log, exchanging of presents, kissing under the mistletoe, or caroling.