Today, Fat Thursday is celebrated in Poland. It is the last Thursday before Lent starts and, traditionally, a lot of donuts are eaten on the day. The Polish donuts are a bit bigger than their American equivalents and have no hole in the center. They are covered with powdered sugar-based glaze and filled with a small amount of marmalade. The more modern version is chocolate, pudding, or cherry filling. Well, I like the marmalade ones best. Of course, you can eat donuts on any day, but the Fat Thursday tradition is quite a good excuse if you feel like stuffing yourself and eating more donuts than one or two. Well, maybe four?
The spelling of the word "pączki" (= donuts) includes the Polish letter "ą" which does not exist in the English alphabet. That is why people tend to write "paczki" instead of "pączki". The trick is "paczki" means "packages" in Polish, not "donuts".
Traditional Polish donuts are deep-fried in oil. Some years ago, I made them as well. There are other options, though. However, instead of frying, I used a recipe for baked donuts. You can find it here: Yeast Jelly Buns.
Have you eaten a donut today?
Photo: Silar, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, Wikimedia Commons
Biskupin is an archeological site and history reserve situated on Lake Biskupin, about 56 miles from Poznań. In 1933, the remains of a Bronze Age settlement were discovered there. A year later, archeological works started at the site. The remains appeared to be a fort/defensive settlement from the Bronze/Iron Age - an example of the Lusatian Culture. The fort, surrounded by a wooden palisade with a gate, consisted of 106 houses. Between the houses, there were streets paved with wood. During the decades of excavations, traces of a few settlements of the various time periods were discovered. They were partly reconstructed and nowadays, the site is available for visitors.
We have been there as well. The Museum site is so large that walking around and visiting the area took us four hours. In the end, our legs were not very much willing to cooperate, but it all was worth our effort. It is one of those "one-of-a-kind" places. During the school year, Biskupin is full of school groups. Since we were there in the summer, we could enjoy our walk without crowds around us.
The Biskupin site sections which we have visited
Traces of hunter-gatherers camps constructed 10,000 years ago - this part of the museum site presents reconstructed huts made of cane, an outside hearth, and an original ancient boat made of wood.
An ancestor (?) met at the hunter-gatherers camp site
Not far from that, a settlement of the first farmers was discovered
(from 6,000 years ago). They lived in pine longhouses. Each of the
houses had about 12 inhabitants who occupied two chambers. In a bigger
chamber, there was an inside hearth.
The longhouse looked similar to the ones built by the Vikings
The fort reconstruction - a bridge, gate, parts of the outside wall, breakwater, two rows of huts, and a street.
At the fort gate
An early medieval village, traces of which were discovered before WW2. The reconstructed part - several houses without windows, with a hearth inside.
The last section of the Biskupin Museum is a wooden Pałuki hut from the 18th/19th century. Pałuki is an ethnographic region in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian and partly in the Greater Poland region. The inside of the hut is not open for visitors. Around the house, you can see a reconstructed well and a bee garden.
Biskupin is recognized by the National Heritage Board of Poland as a National Historic Monument.
More about the excavations works and how the original settlements were constructed - in the video below.
This post is a reply to Amanda's blog entries regarding the First Communion Days of her Uncle. Amanda is a family genealogy blogger. The lady's post about Father reminded me of the day of my First Communion. I was curious whether the gift traditions related to the sacrament day celebrations were the same in the US as they were in Poland. That is why I asked Amanda about that.
Inspired by Amanda, I looked at the old photos thinking about the past.
It started raining during the church ceremony on my First Communion Day. It was June and still not very warm. After the morning church celebrations, my godmother (and my aunt) took me home in her car. She simply did not want me to get wet. It caused a bit of confusion as my mom did not know about that and kept looking for me in front of the church. It all ended well though, as we found each other at our home. The aunt and her family had come from another city to our place a day before.
Why I asked Amanda about the gifts. Besides the items related to the religious ceremony which were provided by parents before the day (prayer book, rosary, the candle, candle collar, and decorative cloth/wrap), there was one big (then) thing awaited by every child. The first-ever wristwatch. I got mine from the godmother. Another traditional present was a sterling silver holy medal on a chain. Mom bought me a lovely heart-shaped medal with a picture of Holy Mary on it. Unfortunately, looking at the old photographs, I realized I have no idea what had happened to the medal and how it got lost.
As for the watches - usually they were presented to the children on the Communion morning or earlier, before the church. The result of that was that many kids were more focused on showing their watch to their peers than thinking about the ceremony. That is why my mom did not let me wear mine to the church. I think she was right.
In the afternoon, we came back to the church again for the kids' group photo with our priest and the bishop, and to collect our First Communion certificates. The latter was quite unusual as it was a wooden picture made ready to be hung on the wall. There were so many children who received the First Communion on the day that we had photos taken in two groups - girls only and then, boys only. I counted the girls in the photo I have - there were 39 girls including me.
Another tradition was that, on a day after the First Communion, parents took their kids to a photographer for a photo session. Of course, it was not mandatory and more personal as it was not a group event. However, it was one more gift provided by parents. Filming on the big day was very rare at that time as hardly anybody owned such equipment.
PS
I forgot to write about the myrtle wreath (you can see it in the photos). It was another traditional part of the girl's First Communion look in those days. The wreath was made by my mom who had bought a pot of myrtle plant and grown it for some time. By the church sacrament day, the plant was big enough to make a wreath out of it. The little white flowers were daisies. Mom added them to make it all look less plain-green.
In "My Polish Alphabet" B is for a few things. If you have not read its previous entries, the Alphabet is about things, people and places which come to my mind when I think about Poland.
B for Birches
Birch trees are a common element of the landscape in Poland and that part of Europe. Well, you do not see it in Texas, though due to the climate difference, of course. Birches are said to emit positive energy of healing properties. The energy, bringing calmness and relaxation (among others) is believed to be beneficial for humans. That is why (according to dendrotherapy), hugging those trees and being around them is supposed to be good for our health. Birch syrup derived from the tree trunk, birch leaves, and its petals contains various micro-elements and is used in herbal medicine. Moreover, birches are just pretty trees with their slim trunks covered with white bark and light green leaves on the branches.
B for Berries/ Blueberries
I remember picking them when we happened to be in a forest when I was little. There were quite a lot of woods with deciduous trees where we lived, so it was not uncommon to visit /walk in such an area. Sometimes it was raspberries as well - they went straight from a bush into our mouths.
In the summertime, you can buy all kinds of fresh berries at greengrocer's or at the local market fruit and vegetable stalls. My favorite summer dishes made by mom were blueberry soup served with diced cream of wheat and blueberry dumplings (stuffed with blueberries) served with cream and sugar.
B for Baltic Sea and Baltic Sea Beaches
Ages ago, on the summer weekends, mom made sandwiches, packed them with a bottle of syrup and towels in a bag, and we walked to the beach. As a few-year-old kid, I enjoyed spending half a day playing in the waters of the Baltic Bay. Later, in the evening, my burning and red arms usually reminded me about the beach time. Mom treated my burned skin with buttermilk. The cold layer of milk brought relief. later in my life, I visited the beach also on my own. Although as time passed by, I (meaning my skin and I) enjoyed sunbathing less and less. It was always nice to walk barefoot along the sandy seashore.
However, that was not what I liked most about living by the sea.
It was the salty smell of the breeze coming from the Baltic, refreshing the air not only on a hot summer day. On the other hand, in the wintertime, the sea brought dampness and chilly gust which made the "feels like" air temperature lower than the thermometer was showing.
No matter what the weather was, besides the storm, of course, the sea boulevard was the place to stroll. The sound of the waves hitting the stone boulevard barrier and the calm waters of the Baltic made the walk relaxing. The ships standing somewhere far at the distant horizon were a pleasant view as well.
The second part of the B entry soon on the blog.
Credits:
Photo of Birch Trees - Dalee Despain, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo of Blueberries - Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
A friend reminded me of the "Fashion" section on this blog. Well. being involved in other projects, I had completely forgotten about that.
So, here it is. A totally different post to previous ones, inspired by the fashion trends of the 70s.
Among others, the 70s was the time of rock music and the bands which were later labeled as "classic". It was also the time of disco music and discos.
Below, is the set of clothing influenced by the 7th decade of the 20th century. It is my personal choice of course, items that I would wear. I found them on the amazon.com shelves. The prices of those pieces are rather moderate and affordable which, besides the design and look, has its meaning as well.
Part 1 - today's post is about an everyday and toned-down look.
Tops
The T-shirt and the sleeveless match both the jeans and a denim skirt. Both tops have graphic motifs related to the 70s.
Black "Love & Peace" T-shirt - here. I most like the flowery pattern on the black shirt.
Sleeveless "Dancing Queen" black top - here. Well, maybe it is not a spectacularly impressive piece, but I find it a good match to the rest of the chosen outfit. If one does not like to uncover their arms and expose them to the sun in the summer, the top has its T-shirt version as well find it here.
A more interesting alternative to the plain tops is a colorful shirt.
3/4 sleeve shirt - my choice is D multi-color (the 1st one) - here. However, with the flowery jeans (see below), I would wear a one-color top - pink, white or black option on that page.
Blue jeans (only non torn ones!) - here. My shade choice #1 is Blue 2402 (the third picture), then, Light Blue 2402.
Light blue, embroidered jeans - here. All the three ones are cute - I prefer no.1 (Blue), though.
Skirts
Among the amazon.com offer, I have not found the type of skirt that was very trendy in the 70s. The akirt was most often two-toned and had wide stripes going across and down the piece. Well, it was commonly known as a "banana" skirt in Poland.
A regular denim skirt will certainly do instead. It is also more neutral regarding the style.
Platform shoes were in then however, they would not be suitable these days considering my height. Well, it does not mean I did not have a pair of those years ago.Another type of shoe-ware that was popular in Europe in the 70s was the clogs. I quite like them. I did leave behind in Poland two pairs of those (with wooden bottom part) - black and white ones.Nowadays, I would still wear the clogs, if I had them here.
is a must. I might have lived in the times where all the adults wore hats, well, my head likes to be covered. Although it is a matter of style as well.
