This is another entry from the month of February from the diary of Marianna Malinowska Jasiecka Marianna in the years 1890-1914 compiled  by Janina Fedorowicz and Joanna Konopinska. It describes the custom of women  getting together during the long, cold (and often tedious) winter nights to strip feathers. The women got together at each other's homes to help each other strip the down off the quill of feathers obtained from ducks, geese and chickens in order to make pillows and comforters.  Done alone, it was an onerous task. Done together it was a social event lightened with talk, music and food.  These get-togethers lasted only until the beginning of Lent when all such social activities ended.


Polwica, February 1895

Besides the domestic help, a few women and girls from the manor farm and from the village have come to strip feathers.  Sometimes there's twenty people who gather together.  The feathers from ducks and geese and the better feathers from chickens are stored in white bags in the attic. We've brought them down to the room designated for stripping and so as not to mix the different types of feathers, the contents of each bag  is placed on separate tables.  The best down is obtained from geese and these are later made into pillows. The kołdry and  pierzyny (feather quilts) are made from mixed down. The feathers that aren't stripped that is, the worst ones mixed with chicken feathers are cut with scissors instead and made into spodków----or as some call it, a feather bed, which is placed on the mattress to make it soft and warm. Recently I've been hearing some talk that sleeping on feather beds is not healthy. Even my girls refused to sleep on the feather bed the last time they were home during winter recess saying that nobody slept on them at school.  I can see I'm old fashioned since I sleep on a feather bed from November to April. Michael does the same.

Stripping feathers generally starts in country cottages right after the feast of Three Kings and lasts until the middle of February.  Here it will probably last till the end of the month.  After supper, around 7pm the women start arriving and take seats on long benches and work until 9 or 10 in the evening while at the same time sharing news, gossip from the entire neighborhood and even legends. One of the favored themes are tales about unusual happenings, about spirits.  It happens at times that some of the local young men stop by to see the girls and play on the harmonic or fiddle, everyone sings and its very merry...these evenings have a charm all their own. Outside it is cold and snowing, a frequent storm and darkness with the wind howling beyond the windows and we sit in warmth with kerosene lamps lighting the interior and the roll of pleasant conversation. At the end of the work, Bejmowa(servant) brings out coffee made from grain with milk and large chunks of freshly baked sweet bread and offers it to everyone.

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Stripping feathers is a bit of a fashion show.  On such a night the girls and younger women dress up to show each other their clothes, explain how to embroider a particular motif for an apron or ruffle, how to crochet a scarf or trim stockings that are knitted from wool. I always wonder  when they have time to  crochet and embroider. The country woman is always overburdened with work in the house and field, has a passle of children. Where does she find the time for something like hand work. But the women manage to do so and often very nicely. Mama encourages the girls to knit, believing that it is an indispensible skill in the life of even the most well to do women.  So even small Jadzia knows how to make wool socks and knows some basic crochet work.

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I have loved reading diaries since I was in elementary school.  I still read children's diaries, teen and adult ones and I especially enjoy diaries kept by Polish women. 

​ The book "Marianna i Róże" (Marianna and Roses) was written by a female descendant of Marianna Malinowska Jasiecka. It is  based on a compilation of family documents, historical facts and the contents of a  diary kept by  Marianna Malinowska Jasiecka that was found in an old chest.  

The diary begins in April of 1892 at a time when Poland was partitioned by  Prussia, Russia and Austria and Poland as a country ceased to exist on the maps of Europe.  Marianna was considered gentry,  married to a man with a significant amount of property,  had servants and enough free time to keep a diary. She lived in a manor house in Polwica in Wielkopolska(Greater Poland).  Her entries are  filled with her day-to-day life as wife and mother, her family history and genealogy,  what life was like under Prussian rule but also includes the yearly customs and traditions of the times. Here is an excerpt for Candlemas, celebrated on February 2.

Polwica, February 1895
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In the morning we went to our parish church in Śniecisk.  Everyone had a large blessed candle called a gromnica, decorated with a white ribbon and a sprig of myrtle (author note:myrtus communis). The "gromnica" or blessed candle is lit when expecting the priest to come "na kolęda"( author note:Christmas visit by the parish priest) or to visit the sick as well as during a storm and definitely when someone was dying or next to the already deceased individual. There still exists among the village people a  superstition that if someone manages to bring their lit candle from church to their home, then no one from that family will die that year.  As a result everyone tries to get home with their candle still lit.  Depending on the weather, it's not always easy.  It's amusing how people walking along the road are protecting the faint glimmers of light with their scarves or coat so it doesn't go out. The candles are kept near holy pictures or, as is with us, in special candleholders.  The candle is lit during storms to distance away the thunder and placed in the hands of the dying so that they can have an easy death and  can more easily find the gates of heaven by the light of the blessed candle. That is why the holy day is cherished and solemnly observed.

My next blog will share another entry from Marianna's diary depicting the stripping of feathers for making pillows and a pierzyna (down quilt).

Google photo/ Young Polish girls with their gromnica (thunder candle)  Date unknown.

​The Feast of Three Kings (January 6) was at one time called Małe Boze Narodzenia, i.e., Little Christmas, in Poland because gifts were often given to children on this day in honor of the Three Kings who brought the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Infant Jesus. The Feast Day was a very popular motif in Polish paintings, sculpture, stained glass and folk art.
​This first image is by Polish artist Teodor Baltazar Stachowicz(1800-1873) titled Pokłon Trzech Króli - Adoration of the Magi (circa 1820's). The artist  himself was born on the feast day.

This bas-relief shown below originally comes from the well known St. Mary's Church(Kosciół Mariacki) in Kraków and is dated to the years 1460-1470. It comes  from the workshop of Jakub of Sącz, also known as the Master of the Holy Trinity Triptych. After being located in various churches in Kraków it finally found a permanent home at the Archdiocesan Museum in the name of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła also in Kraków. 

Artist Józef Mehoffer(1869-1946) practiced a variety of arts, but excelled in stained glass windows that can be found in structures throughout Kraków. He found international acclaim for designing the 13 stained glass windows of the Cathedral of  St. Nicholas in Fribourg, Switzerland. The work took 40 years to complete and is now felt to be the most important collection of religious Art Nouveau in stained-glass windows. Among the 13 windows is the Homage of the Thee Kings.

Decorative paper cutting in Poland is called wycinanki, meaning "cutting out" and was widespread as a peasant craft in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  The paper cuttings were often used to adorn the interior walls and ceiling beams of peasant cottages. The various types of cutouts and the  subject matter can range from birds and animals to  country and religious scenes. Here is a beautiful example  of  a tribute to the Three Kings from the Kurpie region of Poland.

A Polish proverb for the Feast of Three Kings:
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" W święto Trzech Króli człek się w kożuch tuli"
On the feast of Three Kings man cuddles in his sheepskin coat.


Google images.

The sharing of the oplatek on Christmas Eve is the most cherished of all Polish Christmas customs.  On the eve of Christ's birth, gathered together at the table where they are about to share the evening  meal, the people of Poland and their descendants scattered all over the world, first offer each other a thin piece of unleavened bread called opłatek and give each other the gift of spoken words. The custom predates Christmas trees and the presents found beneath it by centuries. Instead, bread is shared and the words said are a gift in verbal form.

   And because the words said to one another at the time of sharing the oplatek are a gift, just as we would spend time searching the store for that perfect thing, so should we try to say the best possible words for that person: words of encouragement or praise about their current life or about their future goals or intentions; words of love and caring; words of reconciliation and forgiveness; words that the person can tuck in their hearts and keep there for a  long time afterward. All it requires to bestow this gift is to give some careful thought to what we say.

At some social gatherings, it's happened that we find ourselves exchanging the opłatek with someone we don't know very well or not at all, but it is still an opportunity to gift another person with our words.
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In the spirit of sharing opłatek I'd like to offer my word gift: May you prosper in all ways: spiritually, intellectually, creatively, materially; may whatever quest you are engaged in meet with success: may you and yours remain or return to good health:
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Niech czas Bożego Narodzenia upłynie w atmosfersze radośći i miłosci, a Nowy Rok spełni wszystkie marzenie
May the Christmas season pass in an atmosphere of happiness and love and the New Year fulfill all your dreams.

Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia i szczęsliwego Nowego Roku.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Feast of St. Lucy: Św. Łucji  December 13.

During the  ancient times of the Julian calendar, December 13 was celebrated as the winter solstice, the official beginning of winter, marked by being the shortest day of the year and the longest night of the year. From then on, the days slowly become longer and the nights shorter.  In 1582, when Pope Gregory the XIII changed the calendar to what we now know as the Gregorian calendar, the date of the winter solstice was changed to December 23.

In today's times we recognize December 13 as the feast of St. Lucy, a third century martyr, who dedicated her virginity to God and died a terrible death when she refused to marry. Remnants of  the old Julian calendar still remain in some old Polish proverbs, passed on orally through the generations,  as in :

" Swięta Łucja dnia przyrzuca. "The day(light) arrives  with St. Lucy.

 and

 "Święto Łuci noc króci."  St. Lucy shortens the night.

Perhaps the ancient celebration of the return of longer days, of light and increased sun, critical for bringing life back to trees and plants necessary for life accounts for this particular Polish custom:

On the day before the feast of St. Lucy, the girls place a branch of a cherry tree  in a bottle filled with water and keep it in the window up to Christmas day. If the branch is covered in blossoms by this day, she will shortly marry.  If not, she will remain single for a while yet.( Stanislaw Ciszewski. Lud Rolniczo-górniczy z okolic Sławkowa Powiecie Olkuskim. Kraków.1887) For others not looking for marriage prognostications, the blooms signify good luck and prosperity.

The success and failure of crops were (and still are!) so weather dependent that the day was also used to foretell future weather such as in the proverb:

"Święta Łucja głosi, jaką pogodę styczeń przynosi." St. Lucy announces what the weather will be in January.
 
The twelve days, beginning with the Feast of St. Lucy on December 13 until December 24, were carefully noted for each of those twelve days predicted what the weather will be throughout the upcoming twelve months of the year.
 
The feast day also officially marked the beginning of preparation for Christmas in earnest. 

​Today, December 2nd, marks the beginning of Advent season for 2019. In Polish tradition there is a beautiful custom surrounding Advent called roraty.  It is a special early morning mass, before daybreak, devoted specifically to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The special name for this mass comes from the Introit, the opening antifon or Latin chant, Rorate Coeli, at the beginning of the mass.  It was the prayer of the prophet Isaiah(45:8) begging the Lord for the arrival of a Savior.

The mass is said before dawn, in the dark, as a symbol that the world was in darkness until the arrival of Jesus as Light of the World. A special feature of the mass is the lighting of a special candle decorated with a white or blue ribbon, the colors associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Gwiazda Zaranna,  the Morning Star. Traditionally the liturgy began in the dark, the faithful often coming with their own candles to light their way.

 In this day and age, when many do not have access to churches that still offer this mass, the faithful can still have their own rorata, their own candle that is lit each morning before dawn. It can be their own time of thoughtfulness, reflection and quiet prayer during the Advent season while listening to Rorate coeli the Latin chant that opens the mass.

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f06qdhO_sEY

Born on 7 November 1867 we remember Marie Skłodowska Curie as the brilliant female scientist who in 1898 discovered a radioactive metal occurring in nature from the radioactive decay of uranium.  She named it Polonium after her homeland of Poland. On the Periodic Table of Elements, Polonium appears as atomic symbol Po with atomic number 84.

In 1903 she and her husband Pierre Curie  were awarded the Nobel prize "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel." She was the first woman ever to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

After the death of her husband, Marie continued her research and in 1911 she was awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry for successfully producing radium as a pure metal. Equally outstanding in their achievements and worthy of recognition is that Marie Skłodowski and her husband Pierre Curie never applied for patents to protect their discoveries. They were believers of  what is known today as the Creative Commons principle. Think Wikipedia, the multilingual, free encyclopedia, where anyone can add to the information and is designed as a collaborative work.

 According to Marie Skłodowska-Curie:

"None of us ever intended to make any profit out of our discovery. Thus we didn't apply for patents and we always publicly announced the results of our studies as well as methods of extraction of the pure radium from the ore. Moreover, we always shared all our knowledge with other scientists."

The Curies never patented the process for purifying radium to keep for themselves. They had no intention  to exclude others from making, using or selling their discovery. They published their work openly and freely for others to build on in order that they might come to new conclusions, new discoveries and increase the amount of scientific creativity.  Other scientists and chemical companies began processing radium and selling it for cancer treatments but at such astronomical prices that for a while Marie Curie was unable to afford the very element she had discovered to carry on with her own research. It did not stop her from continuing to share her findings.

Marie Skłodowska Curie died in Paris on July 4, 1934. She is recognized as one of the twentieth century's most brilliant minds and was, at the same time, incredibly giving and generous for the benefit of mankind.

 
 This photo was taken by my husband in Poland in December 2009 while we were visiting a museum in Stalowa Wola, only a few miles from where my grandparents, aunts and uncles were living during the German occupation of Poland during WWII. This is just a fragment, one episode among thousands, of what life (and death) was like under Nazi occupation.

Here is the English translation of the above poster and the story behind it.
 

                                                          Announcement!
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 On the evening of the 13th of October, 1943, there was a cowardly attack on the estate in Charzewice  and shot by a band of murderers were the German [Reichsdeutche], couple FULDNER and their 6 year old CHILD.
 The Polish people are hereby called upon to track down the criminals and their accomplices.
 
If within 24 hours, that is up to October 20, 1943 at 1400 hours, the murderers are not caught or reported to the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) - Aussendienststelle Stalowa Wola with specific details leading to apprehension and capture of the murderers - the following prisoners affiliated with the Resistance Movement and being held by the German police - will be publicly shot.  
 
1.Bednarz Tomasz. 2.Brzowe Zdzisław. 3.Chuchro Stefan 4.Dyduch Marian. 5.Gawel, Jan
6.Hillenbrandt Adam 7.Kalandyk Julian 8.Kalandyk Władysław. 9.Killian Paul 10.Kluz, Julian
11.Kochański Adam 12.Kongol Tadeusz 13.Kowalczyk Tadeusz 14. Krucha Józef 15.Mikola Tadeusz 16.Niedziocha, Mieczysław 17.Lubera Ignacy 18.Lubera, Jan 19.Ortyl, Jan 20. Popiołek Roman 21.Paczek Michał 22.Rusek, Stansisław 23. Latasiewicz, Jadwiga 24. Lataziewicz, Zuzanna 25. Lysak, Antonina
 
                                                          The SS and Police Fuhrer of the District of Krakow
 
October 19, 1943.
 
 This is the story behind the announcement and the eventual murder of 25 of Poland's citizens:

Earlier that year, on the night of June 23/24, 1943, a branch of the German Waffen SS brutally murdered the Horodyński family in Zbydniowo near Stalowa Wola (Rzeszow region). The murder was ordered by Martin Fuldner from nearby Charzewice. At the time Fuldner held the role of Minister of Agriculture in the General Government and was in charge of the wealthy Lubomirski estate in Charzewice (today a part of the city of Stalowa Wola). A lover of antiquities, Fuldner coveted the Horodyński manor house with its beautiful antiques, paintings, and porcelain as well as the estate itself.

That night in June of 1943, the Waffen SS were in the region with the purpose of ridding the area around the River San of resistance fighters. Through his powerful connections, Fuldner took advantage of that fact to liquidate the family and take over their estate. Under cover of darkness and using the pretext that there were partisans in the house, the Waffen SS brutally shot down nineteen Poles including a 12 year old boy who had gathered together to celebrate the marriage of a Horodyński cousin. The victims were shot in their beds, or while trying to escape.  Two brothers, Zbigniew and Andrzej Horodyński attending the party managed to hide in a secret compartment in the attic and heard the shots as their family members were cut down. They managed to escape and recount the story of the murder of their family.

In reprisal, the Resistance issued a death warrant and executed Martin Fuldner and his family . 

No one came forth with any information as to who was responsible.

There were witnesses to the execution of the 25 Poles named in the Announcement. " I remember the execution," says Michalina Hara, " when the Germans took retribution for Fuldner and his family. Along with other workers in the barracks we could see this tragic act through the gaps in the wooden walls. The day before the Germans made the local men dig a huge hole 4 meters long, 3 meters wide and 2 meters deep. The next day they brought 22 men and 3 women. We were all crying watching innocent people go to their deaths. They were separated into groups of eight and made to stand near the hole, a gun pointed at each individual.  The signal was given and each body in the hole was also stabbed...before the shots, one of the men shouted, "Long Live Poland."

The two brothers that survived the attack,  Zbigniew and Andrzej Horodyński, later gave their lives in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.

Four years later, in 1947, the bodies of those executed were exhumed. Fifteen were taken away by family members to be buried in family plots. The other 10, with no family to claim them, were buried in a group grave along with another 65 individuals murdered in Rozwadowa, (also near Stalowa Wola) by the Germans.

This year, this October, marks the 75th anniversary of the murders in Charzewic and Rozwadowa.

Cześć ich Pamięci. Honor their memory.
 
http://kedyw.pl/index.php/2018/10/14/75-rocznica-niemieckich-egzekucji-w-stalowej-woli/