A week before Easter Sunday, Poles mark the start of the holiday period by celebrating Christ’s entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
As in other parts of the world, on this day, Poles bring ‘palms’ to church to be blessed. Due to the scarcity of real palms, however, symbolic and beautifully crafted bouquets of willow twigs and dried flowers are used, often including catkins.
The making of ‘Palemki’ is a social affair shrouded in tradition and local competitions are often held to reward the most creative. Once blessed by the priest at the Palm Sunday Mass, the brightly colored bunches are taken home and kept as a lucky charm.
The Polish at Heart website and online magazine for Polish emigres around the world, writes that in the northern Pomorskie province, Palemki were traditionally placed in ducks’ nests and beehives to keep them from evil spirits and ensure their bounty. In the south, the creations were used to sprinkle fields to encourage a good harvest while elsewhere villagers would tap them against cows for an abundance of milk, or children for good health.
In the southern Carpathian Mountains, as well as in the Kurpie region near Warsaw, huge Palemki are constructed and paraded through towns. In the country’s most famous annual Palemki competition, in the southern village of Lipnica Murowana, the record is held by a whopping 33-meter Palemka.
Also in the south, another Palm Sunday tradition has recently been revived. In and around the city of Kraków, it used to be the custom for young boys to greet churchgoers after Mass wearing tall straw hats decorated with crepe paper and carrying staffs with their faces blackened with soot. The faithful would give them eggs and other snacks in return for reciting nonsensical verses. In the revived tradition, girls now also take part.
Across the country there are annual Easter Markets that attract crowds of locals and tourists alike. These fairs sell a wide range of folkloric handicrafts such as colorfully decorated hares, lambs and hens. And, of course, it would not be the Easter season with brightly painted eggs.
Whatever traditions take your fancy, Palm Sunday remains a time to look forward to the Easter season and spring, and the end of the austerity of Lent.
The making of ‘Palemki’ is a social affair shrouded in tradition and local competitions are often held to reward the most creative. Once blessed by the priest at the Palm Sunday Mass, the brightly colored bunches are taken home and kept as a lucky charm.
The Polish at Heart website and online magazine for Polish emigres around the world, writes that in the northern Pomorskie province, Palemki were traditionally placed in ducks’ nests and beehives to keep them from evil spirits and ensure their bounty. In the south, the creations were used to sprinkle fields to encourage a good harvest while elsewhere villagers would tap them against cows for an abundance of milk, or children for good health.
In the southern Carpathian Mountains, as well as in the Kurpie region near Warsaw, huge Palemki are constructed and paraded through towns. In the country’s most famous annual Palemki competition, in the southern village of Lipnica Murowana, the record is held by a whopping 33-meter Palemka.
Also in the south, another Palm Sunday tradition has recently been revived. In and around the city of Kraków, it used to be the custom for young boys to greet churchgoers after Mass wearing tall straw hats decorated with crepe paper and carrying staffs with their faces blackened with soot. The faithful would give them eggs and other snacks in return for reciting nonsensical verses. In the revived tradition, girls now also take part.
Across the country there are annual Easter Markets that attract crowds of locals and tourists alike. These fairs sell a wide range of folkloric handicrafts such as colorfully decorated hares, lambs and hens. And, of course, it would not be the Easter season with brightly painted eggs.
Whatever traditions take your fancy, Palm Sunday remains a time to look forward to the Easter season and spring, and the end of the austerity of Lent.
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