List of articles – Spis artykułów

Below you can browse through a list of all the articles that I already published here, divided into the main categories.

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CUSTOMS AND FESTIVALS AROUND THE YEAR

1. Candlemas Day and gromnice – ‘thunder candles’ (February 2nd)
2. Holy Mother of Gromnice (Thunder Candles), or the Divine Mother with Wolves (supplementary to the article about Candlemas Day)
3. Drowning and burning of Marzanna (around March 21st – first day of spring)
4. Palm Sunday and the symbolic ‘Easter palms’ (last Sunday of Lents before Easter – usually late March or early April)
5. Pisanki – the decorated Easter eggs in Poland (March/April – connected to Easter that is a movable feast)
6. Śmigus-Dyngus, also called Lany Poniedziałek – Wet Monday (Easter Monday)
7. Siuda Baba. How the informations about a ‘pagan’ Slavic Priestess survived in Polish folklore (Easter Monday around Wieliczka in southern Poland)
8. Rękawka, a Slavic spring festival in Kraków (first Tuesday after Easter, celebrated only in Kraków)
9. Gaik – the “May tree” (accompanying various celebrations of spring, around April-May depending on region)
10. First spring blessing of cattle (around May)
11. Zielone Świątki, so-called Green Week (on Pentecost, movable: usually in May)
12. Corpus Christi, and Polish folk rites and beliefs (movable: 60 days after Easter)
13. Midsummer celebrations in Poland (around 21st June)
14. Wianki (wreaths) and Polish folk beliefs connected to summer solstice (supplementary to article about midsummer)
15. Symbolism of bread and rituals of the harvest season (July/August)
16. Dożynki – the ancient harvest festival (August/September)
17. Day of the Divine Mother of Herbs (August 15th)
18. Dziady / Zaduszki / Pominki – the Forefather’s Eve  (November 1st – 2nd)
19. Andrzejki – feast of love divinations (November 29th/30th)
20. Mikołajki – St Nicholas Day (December 6th)
21. Night of the Witches in southern and eastern parts of the country (night of 12th/13th December)
22. Wigilia – Christmas Eve (December 24th)
23. 12 Dishes served during the Wigilia (December 24th)
24. Star symbolism and Christmas gift-bringers from folklore traditions  (supplementary to the articles about Christmas Eve and St Nicolas Day)
25. Straw as a ‘magickal barrier’, and other Christmas decorations (supplementary to the articles about Christmas)

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VARIOUS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS

(other customs that are rather hard to pinpoint on the calendar)

1. Short list of old superstitions
2. Ritual bread called ‘kukiełka’, given to a newborn’s family (from Nowy Sącz area in southern Poland)
3. Protective symbols drawn on the floor with sand (from the region of Kujawy in north-central Poland)
4. Protection of houses in the region of Mazovia
5. Pająki – protective decorations made of straw
6. Bridal flower crowns and a few words about wedding rites for a bride
7. Painted cottages
8. Rosette / 6-pointed star, a protective symbol
9. Color red (symbolism of colors in folklore)
10. Color white (symbolism of colors in folklore)
11. Color black (symbolism of colors in folklore)

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Old tales and legends:

1. Lech, Czech and Rus, the white eagle and founding of Gniezno (first Polish capital city)
2. Warsaw Mermaid
3. Wawel Dragon, legend from Kraków
4. King Popiel and the Mouse Tower
5. Mr Twardowski
6. A city turned to stone – legends from Stone City Nature Reserve
7. Legends from castles on the Trail of the Eagles’ Nests in Polish Jurassic Highland
8. Wołogór, Mountain Spirit’s helper (legend from Silesia)
9. Magickal Fern Flower blooming on the nights of summer and winter solstices
10. Witches’ sabbath and old-Slavic religious centre on Łysa Góra (Bald Mountain)

[check also this link for various illustrations of Polish tales and legends on my main blog]

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Mythological creatures:

1. ogniki (błędne ogniki) – demons comparable to ignis fatuus
2. płanetnicy – supernatural beings called ‘shepherds of the clouds’
3. zmory – demons feeding on human vitality during sleep
4. boginki – female spirits / demons connected to childbirth
5. latawce – demons of the wind forces
6. biesy – primeval spirits, evil forces of nature that hide in untouched parts of nature
7. południce – midday ladies, demons of betrohed women who died before wedding
8. strzyga – a demon similar to a vampire, often travelling in a form of a bird
9. bieda – a shapeshifting demon bringing misfortune and poverty
10. biali zimni ludzie (white cold people) – demons being a personification of illnesses
11. Kashubian mythology: Slavic mythology from northern Poland

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Native Faith:

1. List of resources about the pre-Christian beliefs in Poland / West Slavs
2. 3 ‘specializations’ of spiritual leaders in Slavic Native Faith

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Nature:

1. Wisent (European wood bison) and aurochs (extinct wild ox), and their relations to Polish geography, culture and folklore
2. Linden trees in the Polish folklore and culture
3. Halny wind, and its legends

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Art and music:

1. Mazurki, the trance music of the countryside
2. Celebrations of midsummer in art
3. 19th-century Polish countryside in art

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Regional clothing:

1. Quick overview of folk costumes from Poland (warning: picture-heavy)
2. Patterns of Polish embroidery
3. Gallery of processions in Polish folk costumes for the feast of Corpus Christi

[For more of Polish folk clothing check my educational gallery of Polish folk costumes]

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Folklore in present-day Poland: 

1. Growing trend: handpainted wedding dresses from the region of Podhale
2. Slavic tattoos by Polish artists