Ukrainian wedding, step 5

You might think, I make a short story long but that is just the opposite. I am struggling here to select for you the most important events from the wedding I witnessed. So here we are - just arrived at the city hall.

In my home country Poland, it is enough to marry in the church, it is as legal as a formal ceremony in the city hall. In the most of other countries - by that I mean, in all the normal states - you need to have a formal wedding to let it be accepted by the state administration.

So we entered the Zaks - which means the city hall. After we have allowed some stalinist-like assistant secretary to terrorize the crowd by giving us instructions on the standing order in the room, the couple was allowed to march inside. Our friend played "Hallelujah" on the key board. 

The song itself can make people cry, that day everyone was close to tears even more.

As an important element of a traditional Ukrainian wedding, you will always find the Rutschnik, a white tissue which has been decorated by embroidery, red and black cross-stich, a special Ukrainian pattern of Vyshyvanka.

The pattern is on the clothes of the wedding couple and of the guests, the embroidery on the bride`s dress and the groom's shirt are hand made by their mother, aunt and neighbor. Vyshyvanka manifests cultural pride of Ukrainian people and they like to wear it on many different fesitve occasions. 

After the formal act, the couple turned around which made most of the females burst into tears. It was a snowball effect.

Another traditional gadget playing an important part at an Ukrainian wedding is Kolache, a puffy bread. After the formal part was completed, the couple shared the bread with every body.

Then, still in the city hall, the first dance was to happen.

Eventually, all the wedding company has left the building, babushkas were chanting and the Vikings played pipes. The wedding procession headed towards the church, for the most solemn part of the day. 

The Outbacks

Do you remember this feeling when you are a kid and you play treasure quest in your grandma's attic? Well, this is how I feel discovering the culture of the people called Lemkos.

In the south east of Poland where I used to spend any given school holiday, this ethnic group have established a flourishing culture. They have been shepherds who migrated from the territory of today Romania. They came in the 13th century to the Subcarpathian Region, they were orthodox. Partially they preserved their own specific culture however they adapted as well to the multicultural society of this part of Europe. For example, they took over influences from the western christianity, among these the architecture.

In the vain of wars, nationalistic movements and in course of stalinist regime this entire ethnic group has been dislocated in many different geographical directions - some had to flee to the USSR being originally and now again Ukrainian territory, some of them have been dislocated in course of the so called operation Vistula to the new Polish territories that after World War II have been attached to Polish state in the West. The dislocation was so absolute that it meant a complete abandonment of villages, property and sacral buildings. Nobody was allowed to talk about any ethnic groups within state territories in stalinist and post stalinist communist times. No mentioning in history books was thinkable. 

As a child I used to hear scratches of the allusions adults have made in their conversations when we were sitting in the Carpathian mountains around the fire place. The topic was secret and nobody really was able to precisely describe what happened here. But here is a story: our friends have a house where we went each year to spend a part of our vacations. The house stands at a lake in Bieszczady (a part of Carpathian mountains). The lake belongs to a generating plant owned by the state. This is a dam lake. The landscape is there original and reminds you of Wild West or at least of what you think you know about it. Our friends who used to go to the lake in the time they were still in school and also afterwards in their university time, they fished the house out of the lake one day. The were paddling on the lake and all of a sudden they saw something underneath the surface. When they got close they realized it was a house - one of the many which were flooded when communists have built a dam and covered with water entire abandoned villages. They took the house out of the water and reconstructed it on the shore of the lake and own it as their holiday house till today.

Similarly to this house, cultures who have been flooded by totalitarianism of the 20th century now come up to light - people start to talk about what they can still find here and there in the landscape.

So there is the path of wooden architecture in the South of Poland. One of the most amazing objects to see there are wooden churches built by the Lemko culture. They have been built out of wood not because stone as material was not available. They have been built out of wood because according to the architects wood was equally good to construct a beautiful object of sacral art. They took example on western sacral art but their churches were still orthodox. After the people have been scattered in all directions, the buildings have been left, have been closed for decades, at some point, when they were lucky enough, they went over to the Catholic church so the local communities could take care of them. Many have been destroyed on purpose however, many underwent a slow decay. After the transition of political system, Polish conservators managed to raise money and save many of these architectonical objects. You can visit them now if you decide to take a detour from the major tourist tracks. These churches on the pictures below are situated not far away from each other, in the region of Jaslo and Gorlice. 

So, discovering the wooden architecture of Lemko culture is making me as crazy as I used to be when my cousin and me were looking for treasures in the attic of the house of our parents and grand parents in Jaslo. It is all covered by history and it is all in the dark but you know, somewhere on the bottom there are jewels to be found. 

And just recently I was able to talk to the first Lemko in my life who publicly admitted coming from the region: it was the psycho bus driver in the Ukraine, who has given me a certain indifference towards a death in a car crash. Another Lemko, whose name might be familiar to you is Andy Warhol.

Enjoy the pictures which all have been taken in September 2006, when another psycho driver took my family and me for this great day trip.

 

Church in Kotan

 Skwirtne

Kwiaton

Swiatkowa Mala

Swiatkowa Wielka

 Krempna

Your personal star

In the Museum of the State of Lower Saxony there is a vivarium. Many people take their children there. There are aquariums full of exotic fish, there are terrariums with spiders and lizards. On the internet site of the museum, the last sentence describing the vivarium says, that among all the creatures, you will definitely find your own personal star. I guess these children did.

Hanover, 2012

Smok Wawelski, my favourite dragon

To be growing up in Cracow can be a real privilege. If your parents use all the magical sides which Cracow has to offer, you will think that fairy tale creatures do co-exist with you and you meet them here and there. The city is full of legends and places that pimp your imagination. The most important story is the one of Wawel dragon - Smok Wawelski.

The dragon and all what was left of the poor virgins

Smok Wawelski has moved one day into a cave underneath the royal castle of Cracow called Wawel. The hill that is the foundation for the castle is a white jurassic rock and these rock formations tend to have caves. A perfect home for a dragon. Also, there is this big city next door - a constant supply of cattle and virgins. Could a Smok ask for more? Smok Wawelski ate everything but as a real dragon he obviously found virgins the best. These culinary preferences were of course not appreciated by the locals, above all the king was not amused.
You are probably already guessing what happened next: The king decided that all knights of the kingdom were supposed to fight the beast and who would succeed, he will gain the hand of the princess and the half of the kingdom.                       The princess

As you can imagine they all have died a horrifying death.

                                The left overs of dragon's meal

 

 A smart ass had to be found. As unlikely as it sounds a young shoemaker applied for the job of killing the Smok. As the king was desperate and his most courageous knights were by now not only dead but also digested including their armors, he agreed to give Szewczyk Dratewka a chance. The young guy killed a sheep, stuffed it with brimstone and placed it in front of the cave. The dragon which has never had enough ate the sheep and immediately the beast felt outrageous thirst. The dragon was so thirsty that it started to spit fire.

The smart ass Szewczyk Dratewka

The left overs of the poor sheep and the thirsty dragon:

In order to get a relief, the dragon started to drink water from the river Vistula flowing next to his cave. For the brimstone burnt so badly the poor creature would not stop to drink and eventually exploded.

The Big Bang at the Vistula River

The brave Szewczyk took the princess as his wife and after the death of the old king, he became a king himself eventually.

He of course did not hesitate to make himself a pair of shoes out of the dragon's skin. (Crocodile Dundee was not Australian, oh no!)

Today, you will find a lot of smoks all over the city: as an integrated part of architecture, like the elements of rain pipes on the roofs of the royal castle:

The souvenir shops are full of smok wawelskis in any kind of variation out of any material:

Kids love the Smok Wawelski story and their self made szopki (Christmas cribs which are one of the traditional things to do in Cracow before the Christmas) always contain the figure of the dragon visiting Baby Jesus:

And in front of the Wawel castle, in front of the cage which you can of course visit as well as the castle, there is the statue of Smok Wawelski spitting fire every three minutes, fascinating the kids and their adults too.

   Disclaimer: during making of this story no dragons, virgins, knights nor sheeps have been harmed!

Pictures who helped documenting the legend but are not shot in Cracow:

- "Left overs of virgins", "The knights", "The archers" and "The helmets" are scenes from Malbork, the crusaders' castle in Poland at the 600th anniversary of the big encirclement.

- "The skulls" is a shot of the window of The Dungeon in Hamburg.

- "Dead horse" and "The erotical scene" have been made in Hamburg's Kunsthalle at a Pop Art exhibition.

- "The left overs of the sheep" has been spotted in the Viking museum in the Ringköbing region.

- "The big bang" is a Mexican firework which won 2011 the international fireworks competition in Hannover.

- "The shoes" is a still life caught in the act on the frozen surface of Maschsee in Hanover, February 2012

Ukrainian Wedding, step 4

When the blessing of the young couple within the house of the groom is finished, the young people step outside. As a gesture of respect and acceptance for the future marriage, the bride is being assisted by the best men, the groom by the bride's maids. Every body is gathered in front of the house and applauses when they step outside. One last ritual is yet to come before the "I do's".

When the formation appears in front of the house, their parents and the elder of the ceremony await them allready with water and rice. And a bread that to non-Ukrainians will rather resemble of a cake. The name of the cake is Karawaj.

The couple and their entourage present themselves to the people and respectfully bow.

While babushkas are chanting, the parents start going around the couple and their witnesses and bless them by sprinkling their heads with holy water and spreading wheat above them.

As a gesture of reciprocity, the bride throws candies like confetti - for the children gathered at the ceremony. This moment reminds carnival customs in Cologne, Germany.

Then everybody follows the procession - first the wedding couple and their entourage step into the decorated cars, than the babushkas and family, then the rest of the guests follow one another to the Zaks - to the office of the county - for the legal ceremony. The bride and the groom leave in separate cars as they are not married yet.

The biggest surprise are the two Vikings playing the bagpipes. Well, i guess, the globalization does not hold its horses from an Ukrainian wedding...