Wet Monday / Lany Poniedziałek

Easter holiday is slowly coming to an end. However, there is one more day to celebrate. For many Poles, the last day is the most entertaining part of Easter. In Poland, Easter Monday is commonly called “Śmingus Dyngus” or “Lany Poniedziałek” [Wet Monday]. Why is that? On this special day, people still keep alive the practice of pouring water on each other. According to tradition, on Easter Monday, before noon, young men should look for the prettiest single girls (maidens) and douse them with water. However, nowadays the roles are reversed and boys also get dripping wet. Even the marital status does not protect people from getting soaked anymore.

Get ready boys and girls!

Tomorrow, nobody will be safe from the Śmingus Dyngus tradition.

The Easter Basket / Koszyczek Wielkanocny

Easter is one of the most important holidays in Poland. Easter celebrations take place for more than a week in Poland and start with Palm Sunday. 

One of my favorite days is Easter Saturday. On this special day, Poles decorate baskets with lace napkins, boxwood (the typical Polish Easter evergreen) or catkin, put Easter food inside and take everything to churches where food is blessed. The tricky part is that nobody can eat the basket goodies until Easter breakfast. It is on Sunday, right after the morning mass, when Polish families gather for breakfast and share each piece of blessed food among all their members.

Are you curious what people in Poland usually put into the Easter baskets? 

Especially for you, I asked my friends to take pictures of their baskets.

Koszyczek wielkanocny Katarzyny. / Katarzyna's Easter basket.

Koszyczek wielkanocny Natalii. / Natalia's Easter basket.

Can you find:

- bread (chleb)?

- Easter eggs (pisanki)?

- a sausage (kiełbasa)?

- a butter lamb (baranek z masła)?

- salt (sól)?

- an Easter cake (babka)?

- an orange (pomarańcza)?

- chocolate eggs (jajka z czekolady)?

- an Easter bunny (zajączek z czekolady)?

- a lace napkin (serwetka)?

- boxwood (bukszpan)?

Do you have similar customs?

What would you put into your basket?

Palenie Marzanny

After a few rainy days, I really appreciated the sudden change of weather. I had a feeling, it might have had something to do with the Polish custom of burning Marzanna.

On Wednesday (20.03) a group of students made 4 straw dolls symbolizing Marzanna – the Slavic goddess of winter.

On Thursday (21.03), the first day of spring, the dolls were set on fire in a ritual called “palenie Marzanny” [the burning of Marzanna].

To summon (invite) Lady Spring and complete the ritual, children and teachers were chanting a Polish rhyme.

Unfortunately, the sudden weather breakdown we experienced a few days after the ritual proves that the burning of Marzanna is nothing else than just a bit of fun. It doesn't anyhow influence the change of seasons. 

Would you like to learn more about Polish customs and culture? 

Join Polish Culture Club, every Wednesday 5 pm.

School rules RULE!

Moving to a new country is a really bold thing to do, but sometimes it is simply scary. That’s why I want to thank you for a worm welcome in Daruvar and making me feel like at home. I appreciate your every smile and your effort to make conversations in English.

My observation period is over now. Over the past two weeks I’ve been visiting various classes, observing the teachers and learning about the school routines and customs.

Did you know that…

An example of Polish humor

in Poland students have to write short tests whenever teachers ask them? It can even happen in the middle or at the end of the lesson. Those unannounced quizzes are called “niezapowiedziane kartkóweczki”. So you’d better not piss off your Polish teacher, otherwise you can expect them saying “Wyciągamy karteczki.” [Eng. Take out sheets of paper.], which is the announcement for the short quiz being written right away. Dear students and teachers, how would you feel about this rule at your school?

For more examples: start a search engine, type in "wyciągamy karteczki" and have fun!

Daruvar, here I am!

Dear students, teachers and parents,

Welcome to my weekly blog on my life and work in Daruvar.  Most of you have already heard about me, but only a few had chance to meet me in person. Let me introduce myself again. My name is Emilia. I come from Poland. My hometown is Zbąszynek, a small town located about 100 km from Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. However, I’ve been living in Poznań for over 6 years. I graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University, where I was studying the early childhood education (BA), the school counseling and care (MA) and English (BA). I did a part of my studies in Finland as an Erasmus student. I also visit Ireland every now and then (I lived there for 9 months in total).

Making friends in Lapland

Giant's Causeway, Ireland

My first activity in Croatia was the Erasmus Intensive Language Course (EILC) in Rijeka. I can’t imagine myself living in a foreign country and not making an effort to learn the basics of the language. Since Polish and Croatian are sisters (both are Slavic languages), it was really easy to get started. Every day I learn something new, though I still have trouble speaking. So, please, try to be patient and forgive me the moments of confusion.

EILC Rijeka, The class of 2013

As a Comenius assistant at your school, I’ll be observing classes, supporting the school staff and teaching my own language and culture. I’ll be more than happy to participate both in everyday school life and extracurricular activities. I encourage you to get in touch whenever you feel like. Don’t hesitate to ask questions or seek for support.

 I officially invite you to accompany me in the truly intercultural experience and to help me discover the true face of Croatia.