Wedged between Palm Sunday and Easter, Holy Week ends the Lent in the Catholic Church. For centuries, this time in Poland has been overgrowing with many traditions, mixing practices from the liturgy of the Church with folk and even pagan beliefs. Especially since the symbolism used in the Church on these days, such as fire, water, light, darkness, death — resurrection has a universal meaning.
Much of the knowledge about old Polish traditions of that period has been preserved in Polish literature, especially the novel "Chłopi" (Peasants) by Władysław Reymont.
The heroes of the novel started tidying up the yard on Holy Tuesday, "(...) they violently whitewashed the rooms, scrubbed the floors, washed the barns clean, smoked meat, cooked, baked bread and cakes". The housewives and girls painted (in the past, they were said to "write", pisać in Polish) Easter eggs (pisanki) for the Easter basket on Good Friday. Reymont shows the rivalry between Jagna and Józka in decorating eggs. Here, Józka has to acknowledge the superiority of Jagna's talent, who is able to depict even small plants and scenes from the yard on such a small and fragile surface.
Passion mystery in Podlasie, Photo: Agencja Wschod-Forum-0493428948 (Source: DlaPolonii.pl)
In villages in Poland, several customs have survived to this day, based on pre-Christian, magical procedures, mixed with Passion themes. Once treated very seriously, today they often take the form of a game or a quasi-theatrical performance. Their goal is to drive away evil, cold, illness, sins — everything that makes life difficult. Thanks to this, people and nature can start the next stage without ballast. In these practices, fire and water are used, as cleansing elements. Wooden clappers are made to scare away evil. Some people whip themselves with branches, which is on the one hand to participate in the scourging of Jesus, and on the other — to force the body to make the effort to become renewed.
These three dimensions: religious, social and ritual can interpenetrate during Holy Week. The motif of water in the liturgy of Holy Thursday appears in the celebration of the priest washing the feet of twelve people. In the past, these were only men, the poor, the homeless, the sick. Such a choice emphasized humility towards one's neighbor. For some time now, women and representatives of various backgrounds have also been in this group.
Despite the usually cool weather in March or April, when Holy Week falls, residents of many regions of Poland entered nearby rivers and ponds to wash themselves, believing in the miraculous properties of water that accumulated on Holy Thursday. It was supposed to provide healthy skin, heal eyes and teeth — which is why it was used to rinse the mouth — and also calm the nerves.
Water reappears in religious and folk rituals on Holy Saturday, the day of its blessing in churches during the night Easter Vigil, which according to the teaching of the Church belongs to Easter Sunday. Some believers to this day take blessed water to their homes in small vessels on Holy Saturday to sprinkle the walls, furniture, threshold and immediate surroundings of their place of residence. In the past, when stoups were hung at the entrances in houses, they were filled with water brought on Holy Saturday. Peasants lightly moistened grain with it before the first sowing and sprinkled cattle before the first grazing, to ensure a harvest and healthy livestock.
Holy Saturday in Poland is, according to a long tradition, a day of preparing dishes for the festive Easter breakfast, which are then brought in small baskets or, as in the past, in large baskets, to be blessed in front of the church. In some regions, folk beliefs forbid opening the basket with blessed food until Sunday morning, under the threat of bringing insects into the house.
Decorated Easter eggs (Photo: A. Wozniewicz)
The symbols of the Easter Vigil liturgy, celebrated after dark on Holy Saturday, spoke strongly to the popular imagination. First of all, the bonfire accompanying the blessing of the fire, the journey with the Paschal candle through the dark church, but also the sprinkling of water as a sign of the renewal of baptismal promises.
Water or fire – although in another version: water and fire – were used during Holy Week, usually on Holy Thursday, to symbolically get rid of evil during the custom called "Judaszki", which consisted of abusing an effigy representing Judas – the apostle-traitor of Jesus. The ritual has survived to this day in southern Poland (Subcarpathia, Lesser Poland, Cieszyn Silesia).
The figure of Judas, made of a large canvas sack filled with sawdust, with a sign on his chest with the word "traitor", and thirty pieces of glass in his hand — symbolizing the thirty pieces of silver for which the apostle sold Jesus — goes through the stages of annihilation. Those administering justice first throw the effigy from the church tower, then hang it on a tree, after cutting it off, beat it with sticks, pelt it with stones and tear it into pieces. Its fragments are burned or drowned in a nearby river or lake. Not even a small trace of Judas is left.
In other regions of Poland, "Judaszki" comes down to the custom of burning rubbish collected from many homes after Easter cleaning in a large bonfire.
The smell of meats, babkas and mazurek cakes is already present, but although Lent is still on until Easter Sunday, it is slowly starting to be told goodbye. Polish peasants came up with a witty way of saying goodbye to herring and żurek – the dishes most associated with the forty-day Lent. On Holy Wednesday or Good Friday, they would hang a herring cut from a piece of wood or cardboard and a pot of żurek mixed with ash and rubbish on a tree. After a while, they would knock down the props and bury the symbolic herring and the pot shells.
The approaching Easter rebirth was also emphasized by intense work in orchards. Trees were planted and grafted. Outdoor activities made it easier to observe the weather. It was believed that whatever the weather was like during Holy Week would remain the same throughout the year. The weather on Holy Wednesday gave a forecast for the spring, and for the following days up until Holy Saturday – for the following seasons.
Regardless of the weather, many Poles participate in Passion plays during Holy Week. Crowds gather every year at this time in the famous sanctuaries in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska or Kalwaria Pacławska and many other places, and from Good Friday they visit the Holy Sepulchres in their churches. Their choice is a path of faith leading to purification.
Translation from Polish by Andrew Wozniewicz.
