National Polish Flag Day celebrated on May 2nd

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Since 2004, May 2nd is the official Polish Flag Day. The Polish flag consists of two horizontal stripes: white on the top and red on the bottom. Variation of the flag displaying a crowned, white eagle national coat of arms on the white stripe is flown abroad and at sea. Read more about the Polish flag here.

White and red were officially adopted as national colors in 1831. They are of heraldic origin and derive from the tinctures (colors) of the coats of arms of the two constituent nations of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, i.e. the White Eagle of Poland and the Pursuer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a white knight riding a white horse, both on a red shield. Prior to that, Polish soldiers wore cockades of various color combinations. The national flag was officially adopted in 1919. Since 2004, Polish Flag Day is celebrated on May 2.
The flag is flown continuously on the buildings of the highest national authorities, such as the parliament and the presidential palace. Other institutions and many Polish people fly the national flag on national holidays and other special occasions of national significance. Current Polish law does not restrict the use of the national flag without the coat of arms as long as the flag is not disrespected.

May 2nd is a second public holiday after the May 1st, currently known as State Holiday, before the May 3rd, which is a Polish Constitution Day.

Besides the important religious holidays like Christmas, Easter, and Corpus Christi, the three day long May holiday is the longest public holiday in Poland. Even the reminiscence of the old, communist International Labor Day of May 1st, won’t shadow the obvious benefits of the couple days off from work.

So if you sit in traffic in Chicago and notice Polish flags on cars and trucks, now you know why.

polish-flag

Source: www.prezydent.pl

 

 

 

polish-flag-coat-of-arms

Source: www.prezydent.pl

 

 

Chicago’s Polish Constitution Day Parade May 4, 2013

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This year’s Chicago celebration of the Polish Constitution of 1791 will be held on Saturday, May 4th, 2013 with another massive parade on Columbus Drive in Grant Park on Chicago’s beautiful lakefront. This 122st Chicago parade in honor of this historic document, the first democratic constitution in Europe and second in the world only to the United States Constitution is once again expected to draw 250,000 eager revelers to the lakefront and untold thousands more to the television coverage of the parade expected to once again be provided by ABC-7 and Polish stations.

Time and location: 11:30 AM on Columbus Drive and Balbo, in front of Buckingham Fountain in Chicago.

Source: Polish Constitution Day Parade Committee

2012

2012 Parade ABC-7 float


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Polish Easter traditions

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pisankiOut of the all Polish traditions, the Easter celebration is one of the most pronounced traditions in Polish culture.  Combination of the Roman Catholic faith and strong identity of various Polish regions make the Easter the most important holiday in the country.

Poles celebrate The Holy Week (Wielki Tydzień) with the intense preparations for the upcoming Easter Sunday starting on Palm Sunday.

Definition: Holy Week is the week preceding Easter and the final week of Lent. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday. Holy Week includes Holy Thursday (also known as Maundy Thursday) and Good Friday, which, together with Holy Saturday, are known as the Triduum. Before the revision of the liturgical calendar in 1969, Holy Week was the second week of Passiontide; in the current calendar, Passiontide is synonymous with Holy Week.

During Holy Week, Christians commemorate the Passion of Christ, Who died on Good Friday in preparation for the sins of mankind, and rose on Easter Sunday to give new life to all who believe. Thus, while Holy Week is solemn and sorrowful, it also anticipates the joy of Easter through the recognition of God’s goodness in sending His Son to die for our salvation. Source

 

 

On Palm Sunday (Niedziela Palmowa), Poles bring their “palms” to church for blessing.  Since there are no actual palm trees in Poland, the “palms” are made from pussy willows, colorful paper, and other greenery.  Check out this great description of “palm” tradition here.

 

On Good Friday, the local firemen begin the watch next to the tomb of Jesus.  Having done the watch as a teenager, I remember how important it was for us to walk the line and keep the straight pose while holding the swords being dressed up i the official uniforms.  I got a little pale during my turn but that’s a story for another time.

 

On Holy Saturday, everyone attends the morning blessing of the food baskets (koszyk ze święconką).  Kids prepare painted eggs (pisanki or kraszanki) using wax or boiling eggs in the onion peels.  Depending on the region, the eggs can be decorated with all kinds of color paper.  Hollow eggs (wydmuszki) are particularly crafty to make since one must drill small holes in the eggs to remove the yolk before decorating the fragile shell.  Besides eggs, baskets usually contain salt, pepper, white or dark sausage, lamb made out of butter, wine, ham, horseradish, and yeast or coffee cake.

 

 

If you haven’t had a white Polish sausage, trust me, you will enjoy it immensely. In fact, you might not go back to your regular sausage. Interestingly, many catholic churches in the United States, especially ones with a significant Polish or Polish-American population, adopted the food basket blessing tradition allowing the Americans to enrich their culture.

 

 

Take a look at the baskets from my church on Holy Saturday.  Afterwards, the kids had a blast with the Easter egg hunt.

 

foodbaskets

 

During the Easter Sunday lunch, right after the mass celebration, everyone at the table must taste at least a little bite of every blessed food before starting the Easter feast.  Among regional dishes, traditional Polish Easter tablet should have: vegetable salad (sałatka jarzynowa), white borscht (biały barszcz or żurek wielkanocny) served with eggs, smoked bacon slab (boczek wędzony), deviled eggs (jajka faszerowane), white Polish sausage (biała kiełbasa), baked ham (szynka pieczona) Growing up in Poland, I still remember the smell of poppy seed roll (makowiec), yeast cake with plums (placek drożdżowy ze śliwkami), and classic cake (babka).

 

 

But wait, there’s more!  In Poland, Monday after Easter is known as Wet Easter Monday (Śmigus-Dyngus aka Lany Poniedziałek), where boys spray the girls with buckets of water.  You start as a little kid with little egg-shaped squirters and move on to empty dishwasher liquid bottles to finally end up with a 20 liter bucket as a teenager.  The firemen also get some action with their hoses.  Check out the video!

 

Yes, sometimes the fun gets out of control but it’s only one day a year so girls are forgiving.  2013 Wet Easter Monday will be substituted with a snowball fight since there is 15 cm of snow in most parts of Poland.  Snow Easter bunnies are also planned so that will be interesting.

 

 

So there you have it, Polish Easter in a nutshell.  If you want to add your traditions or foods, please contribute.  Thanks.

Habemus Papam – white smoke over the Sistine Chapel

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Couple of minutes ago, white smoke came out over the Sistine Chapel.  The new Pope was elected after only 5 votes.  My young son seems to be semi-interested in the whole process.  I did explain to him about the whole process so something might sink in.

Now, everyone is waiting to find out who will be the new head of the Roman Catholic Church.  And, what his name will be.

Update: New Pope: Jorge Mario Bergoglio – Francis – from Argentina, Buenos Aires.

Amazing panoramic photography by Jan Zięba

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Comparing to France, Italy, or Great Britain, Poland’s architectural wonders receive less attention in the media around the globe.  It’s not because of the quality of the offer but rather due to a minuscule advertising budget the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage allocates toward the advertisement in the western media.  The shortsighted lack of pow factor, directly affects the image of Poland as a tourist destination and cuts into substantial profits from the tourism.

Luckily, the well organized Euro Cup 2012 have proven to be a hit among football fans (translate: soccer fans for the Americans) and gave Poland much needed exposure.  However, besides the brand new football stadiums, city centers, restaurants, and gorgeous and friendly Polish women, foreign visitors haven’t discovered the true beauty of Poland: it’s history and architecture.

There are countless websites dedicated to introducing the Polish goodies to the would-be travelers.  However, one website, which came to my attention just recently, provides a panoramic view of the most amazing buildings in Poland and other locations in Europe.

The website http://zieba.wroclaw.pl is a work of art put together by Jan Zięba.  If you are interested in his work, the contact information is available on the home page.  The images are fantastic, and I urge you to take a look at his work.  Enjoy.

 

Can Brits accept Poles living in Britain?

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After reading The Telegraph’s article “Why Poles love coming to Britain“, I was surprised with all the comments, both positive and negative, about Poles and the British immigration situation in general.  The conversation became quite heated, so, I jumped in with my own arguments.

The diversity of the comments was quite enjoyable.  It must be a different readership sampling or more involved citizens.  In any case, arguments from the pro-immigration group and the not-so-much-for-more-immigrants people, were interesting and illuminating.

It seems that Brits, as any other nation obviously, are quite disgusted with the freeloading hordes of immigrants taking over their country.  No argument here.  Germans deal with their Turks, France with Gypsies, Denmark with Pakistanis and Somalis, and United States with Mexicans.  However, British situation is different since a majority of the latest immigrants are from the Eastern Europe making them an easy target.

Why an easy target?  Because, immigrants from the EU member states are eligible for all the social net goodies enjoyed by the native Brits.  And that is the real issue here.  Speaking broken-English, fresh of the plane or a bus, newcomers looking for a chance of a better life, chipping away the status quo of the “regular” or “integrated” immigrants.  Doesn’t matter that an overwhelming majority of Poles are willing to work hard and establish their households to bring or start their families.  To some Brits, they are a threat.

For some reason, some of the comments marginalized Polish soldiers sacrifices during the WWII, mentioned in the article.  Perhaps Brits don’t want to remember this fact but Poles did fights on all fronts of the WWII, including UK.

UberNibbler: So 5,820,000 Poles, including 3,000,000 Polish Jews, or 16% of the total population killed during the WWII is not enough for you? Looks like UK lost 450,900 people or 0.94% of the total population. US lost 418,500 people.  France 567,600.  When you take the number of total pre-war population of Western Europe, it looks to me that Poland suffered its fair share.  How many unaccounted murders were committed on the Polish anti-communists after the war?  Well, that’s a book. So don’t you dare insult our patriotism.

zeppelin: The Poles were some of the best spitfire pilots that we had in WW2. I visit some Polish graves of some downed Polish pilots on Romney Marsh, and as far as I am concerned, we are indebted to these men who allowed us our freedom today, and we should remember their sacrifice.

UberNibbler:  First of all, the telegraph website comments are quite an adventure.  In a positive way.  Great conversations.
Well, since you started, let’s have a quick history WWII lesson, shall we?
—RAF No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N…
—Battle of Monte Cassino
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B…
—Breaking the Enigma code – surprised?
http://www.polandinexile.com/e…
—1st Armoured Divison – Polish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1…
—Cichociemni – “The Unseen and Silent” covert operation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C…

…and finally, a nice summary of the Polish contribution during the WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P…

As a first country in Europe, Poland took on Hitler and said no to his insane view of new Europe.  You can say anything about Poles but when it comes to the credit for our history, we take what’s ours.

pry: Do not forget the “doomed soldiers” of the biggest anti-communist uprising in Europe lasting till nearly 60′s.

UberNibbler: Absolutely.  To the West -  virtually unknown story of the Polish underground resistance during and way after WWII.  Home Army AK and National Armed Forces NSZ, prosecuted after the war and continuing fighting the communist regime.  If anyone wants to get a feel of that time, watch one of the greatest and most compelling movie released in recent times: General Nil (2009). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…  After years of half-baked productions, this movie, based on a true story of general Emil Fieldorf, shows the real deal.  Another movie, Historia Roja (Story of Roj) currently in production struggling with financing to finish the masterpiece, will tell another true story about Polish commander Mieczyslaw Dziemieszkiewicz.  http://ratujmyroja.pl After years and years of communist and post-communist lies, the true history of those times is finally reaching the light.

…since I’m on the roll here, people tend to forget about France and its sins during WWII.  Comparing to Poland, France shamelessly took the collaborator exit.  So much for the 1939 “power” in Europe. But talking fecal matter about Poland and our “weakness” is ok.  Wrong.

There are tons of more great comments for you to enjoy.  And one that gets right to the point of all that frustration with the immigration is from RodPolisher.  Great nick btw.  Read the articles.  If you dare.

Here’s 3 different families for starters…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…

Like with any society, there is some undesirable behavior.  That would apply to the immigrants but also to the Brits.  Nice counter from: AlenLemone

“UK man held over ‘murder’ in Spain” :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…

“Pictured: Moment British man, 32, is arrested in France for sexual assault and brutal murder of mother-of-three” :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…

“British man arrested in Spain on suspicion of murdering his mother” :
http://www.independent.co.uk/n…

“Briton arrested in Benalmadena for Tenerife brawl death” :
http://www.theolivepress.es/sp…

“Ten Britons arrested in Spain over ‘boiler room fraud’ ” :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-2…

For the rest of us, the number game should provide the best overview of just how much of a burden on the British society are the immigrants.  The IZA (Institute for the Study of Labor) put together a great document summarizing all of the handouts in UK.  You can find it here.

One fact that won’t change regardless of the arguments is: Poles see UK as a great place to work and live.  The big question is: can Brits accept Poles in the long run without prejudice?  I leave you with this:

UberNibbler: Please read between the lines. This article is trying to tell you something.  Legally, UK government cannot pick and choose between “desirable” and “less desirable” immigrants.  Will Poles have easier time adjusting to the British culture, religion, values?  Of course they will.  Poles are Christians, raised in a traditional country, share the patriotism and history of a national pride with the UK.  In fact, regular Polish families see UK as a perfect opportunity to continue their lives in a similar environment, bar the corruption,  distrusted political “elites”, and lack of good paying jobs.  Can the article flatly say: thank you white, conservative, Polish people for rescuing our country?  No, it’s illegal.  But deep down, we all know the game.  The game of racial and religious balance.  Why is Germany no longer seeing Turks as a crisis?  Because Eastern Block balanced the scale. Yes, all immigration brings spice to every country.  As with genetic pool, diversity is needed.  You can thank all the Eastern Europeans in about 20 years when their children start paying for your overrated social benefits. Don’t mention it, you’re welcome.

New superpower policing the world? Not so fast Europe.

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The latest article by Anne Applebaum from January 28th, 2013 in National Post, titled “Anne Applebaum on Europe: The world’s new superpower”, inaccurate at its core, raised some interesting points about the EU’s military capabilities. In short, Mrs. Applebaum claims that EU, with it’s 27 member states, out of which 21 are NATO members, has the potential to match the military power of the United States. Perhaps being married to the Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, distracted Mrs. Applebaum from the rest of the political reality of the European Union.

Although the EU members came a long way modernizing their arsenals and coordinating EU defenses, the patchwork of member-states is no match for the global reach of the United States. This simple conclusion has nothing to do with being an American chauvinist or European Union critic. The crude facts and pure numbers may not expose the “new superpower” entirely, but the base of the EU weakness lays with the member states.

According to SIPRI Yearbook 2012, quoted in the euobserver.com, United States military spending was $711billion comparing to $496 billion of all 27 European Union members. EU spending sounds impressive until it’s broken down to individual countries. United Kingdom ($62.7 billion), France ($62.5 billion), Germany ($46.7 billion), and Italy ($34.5 billion), top the list of the highest EU spenders. Proportionally to their size, rest of the EU members spend much less individually.

Right there, the numbers tell the half of the story. Only UK and France have the real muscle to conduct any real war effort. Short-lived that is, of course. Wiki provides even more info about the number of troops, planes, aircraft careers, submarines, tanks, and so on. Some counties look better than other. Poland for example, with it’s recently purchased F-16s, and $9.7 billion military budget, looks like a bigger player among the former Eastern Block.

But what’s more important than equipment and military budgets? In short, different agendas of the former colonial powers versus rest of the Europe.

Fighting terrorist in Mali by French using, most likely, the Foreign Legion, has too much of the cleanup undertone. Perhaps a deeper feeling of a colonial remorse? The world admires France for standing up to the al-Qaeda with the solders hitching a ride on whatever transport planes they could scramble from the US and private companies. However, hitchhiking is not a superpower. Besides, with 10% of the French population being Muslim, it’s obvious that France just taking care of the business before the flames spread too close to home.

For counties like Slovenia, Hungary, Denmark, Poland, Belgium, this war is a distant conflict not worth loosing human lives and money. Yes, some counties will express support, lend some planes, but involving their soldiers in this war is just not worth the trouble. And why not you may ask? First of all, the myopic view of the Muslim extremists danger and secondly, because the United States kept out of this futile escapade. Let’s be honest, without a full US support, chances of a prompt victory are limited. In reality, Mali could become another Afghanistan where today’s allies become tomorrow’s enemies.

Sooner or later, US will loose interest in Europe or NATO, and by then, one would hope EU is prepared to take over the real job of protecting the Old Continent. But that just it – the Old Continent.

The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity in Chicago

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wosp

Among Poles in Poland and abroad, Jurek Owsiak (and his pink glasses), is regarded as a national hero.  His monumental creation, The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (GOCC, Polish Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy, WOŚP) raises millions of dollars every year to help purchase medical equipment for ill children.  Every January, during the Grand Finale, The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity holds the national collection event with thousands of volunteers in Poland and around the globe.  This year, the Grand Finale will be held on Sunday, January 13th.

It is truly amazing that this non-governmental, non-profit charity can influence so many people to help the ones that need the most help.  Yes, this efficient organization puts the Polish government to shame. View the amounts collected since 1993 here.

Polish volunteers from New York and Chicago are also involved with the Grand Finale.  Information about the Chicago base of operations can be found here.

Jurek Owsiak is also responsible for the greatest annual collection of rock music bands called Przystanek Woodstock (Woodstock Station), a weekend long feast of greatest music in Europe.  Since 2004, the festival takes place in the western border town of Kostrzyn, not far from my old town.  If you ever visit Poland during summer, you must check that out.  Besides great music, the mud slides are the best attractions.  Happy rocking!

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Polish Christmas Eve dinner

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Polish traditions are rich and colorful. Christmas time is especially important to Poles because of the Jesus Christ’s birth celebrated by all Roman Catholics. After the first star is spotted, Polish family begins the Christmas Eve dinner with a passage from the Bible, Luke 2:1-14, The Birth of Jesus Christ. Next, everyone brakes the “oplatek” and goes around the table with wishes for the next year. Contrary to the Western traditions, kids open their presents after the Christmas Eve dinner.

I found a great description of the dinner here.

Typical dishes include barszcz wigilijny z uszkami (Christmas Eve borscht with mushroom uszka dumplings), carp in aspic, herring (sledze), breaded whitefish, meatless cabbage rolls (golabki), and noodles with poppyseed. Desserts might include nuts, tangerines, chocolates, makowiec (poppyseed roll), mazurek (a jam-filled flat pastry), piernik (honey-spice cake), pierniczki (gingerbread cookies), kompot (fruit compote), cognac, liqueurs, mead and krupnik (a honey-spiced vodka). Kutia, a kind of gruel with cracked wheat and honey, is also eaten in some parts of Poland on Christmas Eve.

Take a look at couple of sample pictures of this year’s dinner. The Christmas Eve borscht with mushroom dumplings was so delicious that I haven’t had a chance to take a picture before it was gone.  Merry Christmas.

krokiety

cabbage stuffed croquettes – krokiety

sledzie

herring with onions in oil – sledzie z cebula w oleju

ryz-owoce

rice with fruit – ryz z owocami

pierogi

dumplings – pierogi

“Chytra baba” aka “Cunning old woman” takes over Poland’s web

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The town square Christmas Eve celebration intended for the less fortunate residents of Radom, turned into a shameless freeloading frenzy.

It took about 30 seconds for the grabby people to clear the tables. One liter bottles of soft drinks and loaves of bread disappeared before anyone had a chance to taste anything. The spread was to accompany traditional hot Christmas dishes: borsch with dumplings, pierogi, and bigos (cabbage and meat stew). Distribution of hot dishes went fairly smoothly with everyone enjoying the meal.


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So why the excitement? Over 50 cent bottles of citrus flavored water?

The outrage goes deeper than the monetary value of soft drinks and bread. It’s the way the people behaved at the tables. Personally, the whole scene reminds me of the lines to the empty stores during the 80′s when a delivery truck unloaded the goods and people would go nuts. But that was communist Poland. Today, Poland is an economic miracle country with positive growth numbers among the unlucky European countries ran down with recession and unemployment. Are people that greedy?

One woman in particular, labeled, “chytra baba” or “cunning old woman”, gives a black eye to all the values cherished by Poles, when she grabs not one, not two, but three bottles from the table and casually walks away with her loot. Just take a look at the YouTube video. Pay attention to a woman in a white hat. She does not look like a homeless person in need of food. The football-like bottle pass was amazing. That alone upset a lot of folks.

Not surprisingly, the “cunning old woman” is a new Internet hit in Poland. Her photo-shopped persona is plastered everywhere trying to grab all kids of items from the famous scenes. Take a look at her Facebook page. The sarcastic side of fame reminds us once again that nothing in the world can hide from a judging eye of the Skynet.

Merry Christmas everyone. Don’t get slapped at the table for grabbing your favorite pierogi too quick.