2017 The Christmas Tradition of “Kraków Szopka”

Irena Frączek reports……….

The first Thursday of each December is a time of great excitement on the Krakow’s Main Square (Rynek Główny) known for its lively street life and architectural treasures including the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) and St. Mary’s Basilica (Kościół Mariacki). From the early hours of the morning, crowds gather around the Adam Mickiewicz monument (Pomnik Adama Mickiewicza) to marvel at the new crop of colorful Krakovian szopkas (szopki krakowskie) arriving for the annual competition. After the noon Trumpet Call (Hejnał Mariacki) from St. Mary’s Basilica tower, participants of a cheerful parade fronted by folk musicians circle the square and carry them to the Krzysztofory Palace (Pałac pod Krzysztofory), where judges select the winners.

In Polish, the word “szopka” (plural “szopki“) refers to the nativity scenes (szopki bożonarodzeniowe) that adorn every Polish church at Christmas time. Called also mangers, cribs or crèches, they became popular after St. Francis of Assisi created the first manger in Greccio, Italy (1223) and Franciscans brought the idea to Poland just a few years later. The Krakovian szopka emerged from this tradition in the early XIX century due to winter shortages of jobs for stone masons, brick-layers, tilers and carpenters.

To make money during the seasonal slowdown, the industrious construction workers began to create the miniature copies of the church mangers used to carry them along as portable backdrops for kolędowanie (a custom involving groups of door-to-door carollers collecting donations for their singing in ritual costumes) or staging the nativity plays (called jasełka in Polish) on the streets or in the houses of wealthier folks. These spectacles starred amateur actors and/or puppets, both gradually replaced with doll-like figurines populating the crèches. That’s how a new form of folk art was born taking life on its own outside of the church setting.

Fierce competition among the craftsmen helped to shape the unique characteristics of the Krakovian szopka. To attract attention of spectators and potential hirers, the szopka makers were forced to innovate – and they did so by turning to flashy materials as well as incorporating the elements of Kraków’s architecture and/or reflections of its legends, history and political/social life. In what became the most distinctive trait, the Kraków crèche took a shape of an urban structure fusing elements of some of the city’s most famous buildings (e.g. the Wawel Castle, Sigismund’s Chapel, Sukiennice, the Barbican, or St. Florian Gate) crowned with the Town Hall Tower or towers of St. Mary’s Basilica and other churches. They also became exquisitely ornate and sparklingly colorful – the effect achieved with the extensive use of cellophane, tinfoil, tissue paper, beads and small pieces of plastic or glass.

The range of characters populating the Kraków szopka also goes far beyond that seen in the traditional nativity scenes (the Holy Family, the Three Kings, angels, shepherds and animals). The most common additions are folks in regional costumes (mostly from Kraków and Podhale) and heroes of local legends (the Dragon of Wawel, the Kraków trumpeter, Lajkonik or the sorcerer Pan Twardowski). But some crèches spotlight historical figures (like Tadeusz Kościuszko, the Polish and American hero who famously took his oath on the Krakow’s Old Town Square in 1794) as well as contemporary politicians, clergymen, artists and sportsmen. Szopka craftsmen also make references to current global or local events such as Poland’s accession to the European Union, the World Youth Day 2016, or expansion of paid parking zones in the city.

The amount of work that goes into creating those marvels of folk art is truly mind boggling. An average szopka maker spends on his/her hobby about 2,000 hours per year (5 hours a day) and larger structures, which can reach the heights well in excess of 10 feet, take over 10,000 hours to complete. As such workload is unfeasible for many individuals, some crèches are created as group efforts involving family members and/or circles of friends or classmates. But whether solo or in a group, it is clearly a labor of love as many szopka makers indulge it since childhood into their senior years. And for all those dedicated folk artists, there is no greater joy than scoring a win in the annual competition for the most beautiful “Kraków Szopka.”

The first edition of the tournament was organized in 1937 to reignite interest in the tradition that weakened during the World War I and fire up the competitive spirit among the szopka makers. Since then the contest was held every year (with a five year pause during the World War II) and winners of its 75th edition were announced on December 10, 2017. As it recently became a custom, all of the 171 entries submitted this year will remain on display in the post-competition exhibit till the end of February 2018. Some winners will also join the already substantial szopka collection of the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków (Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa), the main organizer and promoter of the competition. The collection is the largest in Poland (about 300 items) and can be viewed all year round in the Krzysztofory Palace located on the Main Square.

In addition to becoming a permanent fixture in Kraków’s Christmas tradition, the phenomenon of Kraków szopka occupies also a bright spot in the cultural landscape of Poland. By blending the history, legend and modernity with the powers of imagination and freedom of expression, it is a unique form of folk art with the engaging message and artistic authenticity. In recognition of these qualities, Szopka Krakowska was placed in 2014 on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List. In March 2017, Polish government filed a petition to include it also on the UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The decision is expected in December 2018. When approved, Szopka Krakowska will become the first entry from Poland on the list that currently features 429 culture elements from all over the world.

2017 Dr. Mazurkiewicz lecture notes

The Story of Polish and East European Exiles
in the United States After World War II

Lecture by Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz

Professor of history at the Gdańsk University
and the 2017-2018 President of the
Polish-American Historical Association (PAHA)

The lecture took place in the Polish Center of Wisconsin on November 16, 2017 under the sponsorship of the Wisconsin State Division of the Polish American Congress and the Polish Heritage Alliance.

…………………LECTURE NOTES
…. by David Rydzewski with edits by Dr. Donald Pienkos

This is the great, if little known story of many Polish and other East European po-litical leaders and activists who had fled their homelands after 1945, the year World War II ended. Soviet Russia had taken over their homelands, suppressed their countries’ freedom and initiated what became known as the Cold War with the United States and the Free World. For the exiles from Eastern Europe, the U.S. government would provide both a new homeland and the support they sought in order to carry on their struggle to regain their countries’ freedom from Communist domination.

After the Faustian bargain that began at the Teheran Conference with Russia’s push to change the borders of post war Poland to the Curzon line and furthered and expanded that argument in Yalta and Potsdam; Britain and the United States negotiated away the rights and freedoms of 100 million East Europeans. With eyes only on how to end the war in Europe and the Pacific, as speedily and at least expense in allied lives, they traded war time expediency, for 45 years worth of cold war subjugation of those people.

Arthur Bliss Lane, American ambassador to Poland wrote a book in 1948 called I Saw Poland Betrayed: An American ambassador reports to the American people. It was first published in the U.S. and later in Poland by an underground publisher. It was a early report to the world by an American insider on this Faustian bargain. East European exiles had been saying this since the end of the war.

America began to fund these exiles in covert ways. In 1949 the U.S. government formed the “National Committee for a Free Europe”, later known as the “Free Europe Committee” or FEC. This group funded by American intelligence agencies created tools for spreading an anti-communist message, for use in the Iron Curtain countries. So began Radio Free Europe, the Europe Free Press, speakers bureaus, and other programs.

Polish exile groups organized in different ways and often were at odds with one another. The FEC pushed for one national committee, but that was a tough task for groups such as the Polish Political Council, the Polish National Democratic Committee, and the Polish Council of National Unity, and the Polish Council in the U.S., who all had similar goals, Poland’s independence, but competing strategies.

In 1954 national committees of nine Central and East European countries formed the Assembly of Captive European Nations (ACEN). This new organization delivered an anti-communist message from the intellectual, educational, scientific and political elites of these nations, who kept alive the voice of the “stateless.” For 7 years the ACEN had a building across the street from the United Nations building in New York, where they kept messages of Europe’s oppressed, visible to the western world.

Without an independent base for financial and political support, the question needs to be asked ,“Were these Polish and East Europeans exiles just part of Dependent Political Organizations, sponsored by American and Western European countries, primarily serving their interests?”

Did FEC and ACEN serve America first and only then exiles and those in the captive countries? Or did it materially help and give hope to those exiles and their countries? Well, it is true that “He who pays the Piper calls the tune”, but what did the exiles and their countries gain?

In the short term, hope was kept alive, and in the longer term, these exiles and their causes saved political tradition, helped spread their countries cultural herit-age, and helped the establishment of East European and Central European Studies as an academic pursuit.

Today those ACEN countries form the eastern watchtowers of NATO, defending themselves and other NATO member states.

2017 Polish Independence and Veterans Day

…
…
Polish American Congress Wisconsin Division (PAC-WI)
celebrates again the
Polish Independence and American Veterans Day

Irena Frączek reports……….

Designed to celebrate the Polish Independence Day (Narodowe Święto Niepodległości) and the US Veterans Day (coincidentally both observed in their respective countries on November 11th), the annual signature event of the Polish American Congress – Wisconsin Division (PAC-WI) was held this year on November 5th, 2017. As usual, the well-attended luncheon provided also a spectacular setting for recognizing the 2017 recipients of the Congressman Clement Zablocki Civic Achievement Award.

The sounds of Polish music greeted the luncheon guests arriving from Milwaukee, Green Bay, Madison and Chicago. Performed in the spacious, high ceiling foyer of the Polish Center by John Pienkos (violinist) and Thomas Gapinski (pianist), patriotic Polish tunes served also as a great backdrop for the Kościuszko exhibit that Polanki, the Polish Women’s Cultural Club of Wisconsin, made graciously available to augment the ceremony. In attendance was Ewa Barczyk-Pease, who with Tamara Johnston co-authored the exhibit to commemorate the Year of Kościuszko.

Jim Robaczewski (Secretary-Treasurer of Polish Roman Catholic Union of America) and violinist John Pienkos led the singing of Polish and American national anthems that traditionally opens the ceremonial banquet. Among distinguished guests introduced afterward were Piotr Janicki, Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Chicago and Ken Skowronski, President of Polish Heritage Alliance and State Representative of Wisconsin; Jeff Kuderski; Executive Director of Polish Heritage Alliance; Denna Flemming, President of Polanki, Polish Women’s Cultural Club of Milwaukee; Claire Ann Gauoette, President of Polish Heritage Society of Northeastern Wisconsin; Teresa Jankowski, Commissioner of Polish National Alliance Dist. 14 Wisconsin; Claude Krawczyk, Chair of the Kościuszko Monument Restoration Foundation; Henry Kulesza, Representative of the Polish Museum of America in Chicago, Aleksandra Burzynski, the owner of Polonez Restaurant in Milwaukee; and many past and present officers of the PAC-Wisconsin Division.

In the opening remarks that followed the applause for honored quests, David Rydzewski, president of PAC-Wisconsin Division, focused on the strengths of Polish-American friendship and recounted the remarkable story of “The Polish Declarations of Admiration and Friendship for the United States” containing 5.5 millions signatures and greetings sent in 1926 from Poland to the United States on the 150th anniversary of American independence. On the other hand, Consul Piotr Janicki, spoke about contemporary connections between Poland and American Polonia, listing also a variety of ways in which we can support and contribute to progress in the country of our ancestors.

After the elegant meal that followed invocation given by Deacon William Banach, and the heartfelt salute to all Veterans, Dr. Donald Pienkos, Past President and current Treasurer of Polish American Congress, reviewed the legacy of Congressman Clement Zablocki and the history of Civic Achievement Award established in his name. Since 1950, the award has been bestowed upon nearly 100 individuals and organizations that distinguished themselves by their service to the Polish-American community and Polish contributions made to broader advancements in the state of Wisconsin and the nation. In 2017, another four outstanding individuals have joined their ranks:

Małgosia Daugherty – a member of the Polish Heritage Society of Northeastern Wisconsin (PHS of NEW) active in all faucets of the society’s work. After joining it in 2002, she served as its Treasurer for ten years and currently serves as its vice president. She also became involved in producing the Society’s bi-monthly publication (3,500 in circulation), organized the presentation of movies on Polish themes and participated in organizing and promoting many other Polish-themed cultural events in the Green Bay area, St. Norbert College (where she teaches Polish since 2008) and Life Long Learning Institute in the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Alex P. Durtka, Jr. – a President and CEO of the Institute of Wisconsin (IIW) for the past thirty four years, where he oversees programs and services dealing with immigration, refugee resettlement, translation and interpretation, citizen diplomacy, and education. He is also involved in organizing the Holiday Folk Fair International, actively promotes the cultural heritage goals of UNESCO and serves on the board of Sister Cities International and other organizations sharing the IWW mission. In those capacities, he assisted in addressing the needs of newcomers from Poland and spreading knowledge of our Polish heritage.

Neil Dziadulewicz – coming from a family with strong tradition of activism in Milwaukee’s Polish community, he is a member of Syrena Polish Folk Dance Ensemble for nearly forty years. Serving for five terms as Syrena’s president and working closely with Ada Dziewanowska, Syrena’s beloved director and choreographer (see Neil’s video about Ada), he helped to expand the international recognition for Syrena’s presentation of Poland’s rich heritage of dance, music, costumes, and customs. Neil also led Syrena’s successful bid to host the 2000 festival of the Polish Folk Dance Association of Americas and co-chairs the hugely popular Polish “Bal Maskowy.”

Beverly E. Krass – a hard-working member of many organizations serving interests of Polish community in Milwaukee. She is a devoted and supportive parish member of the magnificent St. Josaphat Basilica and a long time officer of the Milwaukee Society of the Polish National Alliance, a key fraternal organization in the area. Beverly also played a leading role as secretary of the Polish Heritage Alliance in critical years of the organization raising funds needed to build the Polish Center (opened in 2000) and has been a volunteer at every Polish Fest since that Alliance-sponsored festival celebrating Polish heritage began in 1982.

Congratulations to
the 2017 recipients of Zablocki Award

2017 Dr. Mazurkiewicz lecture

…

November 16, 2017 7-9 pm

The Story of Polish and East European Exiles in the United States After World War II’

Lecture by Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz

Professor of history at the Gdańsk University
and the 2017-2018 President of the
Polish-American Historical Association (PAHA)

Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz will identify the organized efforts that political exiles took to regain their countries freedom from the Soviet Union. She will also discuss the relationships between these exiles and their U.S. supporters and sponsors.

The event is sponsored by the Wisconsin State Division of the Polish American Congress, and the Polish Heritage Alliance.

The free and open to the public will be hosted in the Polish Center of Wisconsin.

PLEASE CALL (414) 529-2140 TO REGISTER.