Research Catalog

Title

Polish customs, traditions, and folklore / Sophie Hodorowicz Knab ; foreword by Czesław Michał Krysa ; illustrations by Mary Anne Knab.

Author

Knab, Sophie Hodorowicz.

Publication

New York, NY : Hippocrene Books, 1996, ©1993.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

335 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

• Polish Customs, Traditions, & Folklore is organized by months beginning with December and Advent, St. Nicholas Day, the Wigilia (Christmas Eve) nativity plays, caroling and then New Year celebrations. It proceeds from the Shrovetide period to Ash Wednesday, Lent, the celebration of spring, Holy Week customs then superstitions, beliefs and rituals associated with farming, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, midsummer celebrations, harvest festivities, wedding rites, nameday celebrations, birth and death rituals.
• Line illustrations enhance this rich and varied treasury of folklore.
• Many of the customs and traditions found herein are extinct even in today's Poland. World wars, massive immigration, the loss of the oral tradition, urbanization and politics have changed the face of a once agrarian people and their accompanying life style. In the U.S., the desire for membership within the "melting pot," marriages outside one's ethnic group, movement to the suburbs away from the "old" communities where customs and traditions were once strong, further weakened the link.
• Although the purpose and meaning may have been lost and forgotten, the oczepiny ceremony (the unveiling) is still the mainstay of almost every wedding where the bride declares Polish heritage.
• Many Polish American communities still reenact the harvest celebrations, reminding themselves of their ancestors' reverence for the grains and gifts of bread. Eight million Americans still claim their ancestry as Polish, many still diligently practicing that which they learned at their parents' and grandparents' knees. Much has also been neglected or completely forgotten.

Subject

• Folklore > Poland
• Poland > Social life and customs

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

December. Advent. Christmas Eve. Christmas Day. Caroling -- January. New Year's Eve. Feast of Three Kings -- February. Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Mother -- March. Carnival Time. Lent -- April. Palm Sunday. Holy Week. Easter Sunday. Easter Monday/Dingus -- May. May Day Celebrations. Green Holidays -- June. Feast of Corpus Christi. Celebration of the Summer Solstice -- July. Linden Tree -- August. Harvest Home Celebrations. Feast of Our Lady of the Herbs. Herbs -- September. Wedding Customs and Traditions -- October. Old Woman's Summer. Name Day Celebrations -- November. All Souls Day. Feast Day of St. Martin. Feast of St. Andrew and St. Katherine -- Birth Customs -- Death Customs -- Traditional Polish Games and Pastimes for Children.

ISBN

0781805155

OCLC

• 35674609
• ocm35674609

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries