Polish Christmas Carols
Datec. 2000
Mediumreformatted digital file from audio cassette
DimensionsDuration: 40 Minutes, 23 Seconds
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
DescriptionAudio cassette tape recording of Polish Christmas carols sung by the Bridgeport Choir. The tape was used as background music in the exhibition, "Polonia w Connecticut: Polish Traditional Art in Connecticut."
Object number2015.196.816a-c
CopyrightIn Copyright
NotesSubject Note: Wigilia/Christmas Eve Traditions - The most important holiday of the year, Wigilia marks a time of watching for the birth of Jesus. The weeks of Advent just before and the Wigilia customs themselves focus on setting things in order, following good behavior and being ready and worthy for the gift of the Savior. During the day, people observe a fast; then at the appearance of the first star in the evening sky, families gather for the Christmas Eve supper. Hay is placed under the tablecloth, and often a place is set in anticipation of the Christ child or for an unexpected guest. Opłatek, thin wafers embossed with pictures of the nativity scene and blessed in the church, are broken and shared among everyone at the table. As the head of the household hands one to each person, a greeting such as this is given: "Nie Bóg daj rok doczekacz - May God grant you another year." Sharing opłatek represents the heart of this holiday, when wrongs or bad feelings between people are rectified and positive hopes for the future restored. Wafers are sent to distant relatives and even offered to animals, as they were the first creatures to offer hospitality to Christ. After the opłatek ceremony, an odd number of meatless dishes are served, representing the harvests of fields, gardens, woods, rivers, and orchards. The family sings traditional carols, kołędy, then attends midnight mass, called Pasterka, the shepherds’ mass.
Wigilia traditions persist strongly in Polonia, probably because of their intensely spiritual meaning and the important concepts of reconciliation and salvation that underlie the rituals. The power of this holiday derives from its sense of community and fellowship - every Polish person is celebrating in the same way all over the world. In addition to family Wigilias on Christmas Eve, Polish churches, clubs, and societies hold communal Wigilias and carol singing for their members. The Polish Cultural Club of Greater Hartford has its Wigilia supper this year on December 8. Polish Americans decorate their homes with traditional ornaments made from straw, paper, tin foil, beads, and eggs in the shape of stars or “spiders”, and place these on their Christmas trees.
Subject Note: Polonia w Connecticut: Polish American Traditional Arts in Connecticut, an exhibit describing the arts and customs of this large community in Connecticut, was developed by CCHAP in collaboration with members of the Polish community, and was displayed in the gallery of the Institute for Community Research from December 7, 2000 to May 2001. The project aimed to bring forward the enduring traditions of Polish American communities in Connecticut by conducting fieldwork in these communities, by collecting art works which express community traditions which still are practiced, by presenting an exhibition and related programming to the public and for schoolchildren, and by developing closer ties with the Polish community as ICR is situated in the heart of Hartford’s historic Polish neighborhood. Project partners included the Polish National Home, Ss. Cyril and Methodius Church and School, the Polish Cultural Club of Greater Hartford, the Polish Studies Department at Central Connecticut State University, and a number of community-based local Polish artists and collectors. Artists whose work was included in the exhibit included Maria Brodowicz, Jadwiga Czarnecka, Marek Czarnecki, Ursula Brodowicz, Carol Gregoire, Wladyslaw Furtak, Sophie Metrofski, and more. Many folk art pieces were donated to the exhibit by Bernard Pajewski.
Marek Czarnecki, an accomplished Byzantine iconographer and scholar from the Bristol Polish community, served as co-curator and gave a gallery talk on March 3, 2001. The project produced a catalogue of exhibit texts and information in both English and Polish. At the exhibit opening, performances were given by the Gwiazdeczki Dancers, a longstanding folk dance group from Saints Cyril and Methodius School and Parish, Hartford, and Wladyslaw Furtak, a singer, storyteller and woodcarver from the Gorale region of Poland who resides in Ansonia. Project funders included the Edward T. and Ann C. Roberts Foundation, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Polish Studies Dept. of CCSU.
The exhibit was timed to coincide with the annual "szopka contest" in late November when students from schools in New Britain and Hartford would create szopki - traditional Polish nativity scenes - then bring them to Hartford's Polish National Home on Charter Oak Avenue where a panel of judges awards prizes for excellence and creativity during the annual szopka festival. Some of these szopki were included in the CCHAP exhibit. Traditional art forms such as papercutting (wycinanki), painted eggs (pisanki), icons, embroidery, harvest ornaments, Christmas ornaments, and folk costumes all made by Connecticut Poles were featured, and the exhibit also included handmade altars and figures made for devotional use in people's homes, a common Polish practice. The exhibit demonstrated the beauty, usefulness, and continuation of traditional arts specific to the large Polish-American community in Connecticut, while also noting the ways traditions become altered in a new world setting.
Additional materials exist in the CCHAR archive for this exhibit and this community.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.On View
Not on view
2000-2001 December-March
