Poland, Music and my family
Polish History and Culture
Poland is a country in Eastern Europe surrounded by Germany, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Its name's origin translates to, "people of the field, meadow or plain." In Polish culture, hospitality is largely valued. During Wigilia (vee-gheel-yah or veel-lia), Poland's Christmas Eve celebration, it is customary to set an extra plate out for a stranger and invite them in for dinner should they knock on your door. Important foods in Polish culture are keilbasa, cabbage, potatoes and pierogis, among others. Keilbasa is a polish sausage, and pierogis are a dumpling like dish, typically filled with a mixture of potatoes and cheese. (My mom makes them every year for Wigilia and only Wigilia because making them from scratch is an extensive, but delicious process.) The first photo is just the filling, and the second photo is the Pierogis before we put them on the stove to fry them.
Poland's Music
Poland and my Family
While I currently live outside of Charlotte NC, I'm originally from Orange County New York. The majority of my mom's side of the family still lives there, more specifically in "Pine island." Despite its name, this region isn't an island, nor is it known for its pine trees, on the contrary, it's known for its flat, fertile fields, full of black dirt. Yes, black dirt. When I first moved to the south, I was genuinely thrown off by the red, clay dirt.
Now you may be asking yourself, "what the heck does this have to do with music or Poland." There's a connection here I promise. In the early 1900s, German, Polish and Dutch immigrants found work in Pine Island, draining the swamp bogs of this region with a network of ditches. These efforts exposed a sulfur and nitrogen-rich black soil that farmers still grow crops in today, specifically onions. As a result, this region is still heavily made up of Polish Farmers. Because of this, these immigrants were able to hold onto their culture and traditions and were able to pass them down generation to generation. Being Polish was a huge part of my Mom's life. In the previous blog, my mom mentioned her cousins being involved with the Karolinka Polish Dancing group, so I reached out on Facebook to ask my 2nd Cousin (once removed) Cheryl all about it (we typically just call her "Cousin Cheryl" lol)
Cousin Cheryl interview
Cousin Cheryl came to visit us in North Carolina a few years ago, so I was really excited to reconnect with her to ask her about her thoughts and experiences. We chatted over Facebook messenger and had a lovely phone call where she told me all about her experience growing up as part of the Karolinka Polish Dance Group.
"I danced in a group called The Karolinka Polka dancers. I did that up until I was about 17 years old. I started taking traditional Polish dance lessons when I was about four and a half years old. We danced with the Florida polish folk dancers, (Florida is a town in NY) then a group called The whoop-dee-doo Polka dancers. And then we formed the Karolinkas. We did traditional Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian steps. We learned about the different regions of Poland. Our opening number was called the Krakowiak which was a traditional Polish dance from the mountainous region in Poland. The region of Krakow."
"We traveled throughout the country on a tour bus, and we performed just about every single weekend all over the United States. We started with a group of six dancers and ended up with almost 20 kids.....We performed at the grand opening of Epcot center in Disney World, however, they didn't even have a Polish area so they stuck us in Germany.....we performed in Tennessee and all over in Port St Lucie at the New York Yankees training camp because their pitcher Phil Nikro happened to be Polish, so for his birthday we went there and danced with every single member of the New York Yankee team at that time. We performed at many October festivals, as well as fairs, and Pulaski Day events. We even marched in the Pulaski Day Parade throughout New York City doing the entire parade route dancing the whole time."
"Each part of the costumes we wore were representative of different things. The flower skirts were indicative of different regions in Poland. Right down to the ribbons that cascaded off the back shoulders of our polish vests. Legend has it that those ribbons and their bright colors show how many boyfriends you have had! LOL"
"We were very much like the self-contained community who were truly proud of our heritage. As you can imagine it was not the most popular thing in high school to be a Polish dancer, however, we did it proudly! Many kids made fun of us at times but we really didn't care. The opportunities that it afforded us were wonderful. We learned very much about self discipline and respect. Our practices were very long and hard to get ready for the shows. Sometimes three times a week and then on weekends we would go and rehearse and rehearse and rehearse. This group also submerged us into the dancing and the preservation of the heritage, we learned other things like about traditional polish cuisine."
The woman on the right is my cousin Cheryl! I wanted to take this section to give her a giant thank you! Not only did she help me with this assignment but she also helped connect me to parts of my heritage I frankly didn't know too much about. She shared her memories and experiences and knowledge with me and sent a whole bunch of pictures too!
The video below is from New York's 1983 Onion Harvest festival! Both Cheryl and my mom were apart of this! It displays the music and dances Cheryl mentions in our interview!
Pierce, Cheryl. 2023 Interviewed by Abigail Matula, Phone Call, 1/24/22
“Poland.” Countries and Their Cultures. Accessed January 27, 2023. https://www.everyculture.com/No-Sa/Poland.html.
“Polish Folk Dances.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, December 29, 2022. Last modified December 29, 2022. Accessed January 27, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_folk_dances.
Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, December 18). Music of Poland. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 27, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Poland
This was such an informational blog entry! I always loved to learn about Poland and its culture and what their music is like. I also loved how you added traditional dances and food (I got hungry from looking some of them.) Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeletePolish food slaps. My family likes to attend a lot of Oktoberfests in the fall and theres usually a lot of polish people at those and the place my family goes the most is in Helen, Georgia and theres a little polish shop and after reading this blog it made me think of that little shop.
ReplyDeleteI loved how you chose a culture that you had a personal connection with, it made this entry so sweet! The interview with your cousin was a nice touch, and I had no idea that there were Polish dancing groups in America. I'm so glad to have learned something new! (Also I felt the same way about the red clay in the Carolinas being from Wisconsin where all the dirt is black as well).
ReplyDeleteIt's so cool how you tied in a culture with something you're passionate about! I loved seeing all aspects of Polish culture in the blog, and how you involved your cousin and a video of her!
ReplyDelete