Colorful Christmas tree, spider and rooster. How the Polish village decorated houses for Christmas
Village and Family
tradition
Date of publication 24/12/2022.
“Dressing up the Christmas tree nicely is an annual concern of parents, security and school managers, older siblings, and even children themselves, as long as they are at the age that the Christmas tree is no longer a surprise, but the greater the joy, the greater, the more there is own work. The constant call to get rid of foreign products and products, and the action that in our national conquest we have an inexhaustible source of origin, prompted me to make an attempt to nationalize the Christmas tree, a creation of the »Polish Christmas tree«, and actually a kind of »spiders« hung from the traps of huts during the holiday season” – wrote Maria Gerson-Dąbrowska, a Polish painter, sculptor, writer, art historian and critic, publicist and educator in the publication “Choinka polska” from 1922. The reborn Republic, after 123 years of non-existence, used strong national accents. A Christmas tree and its equipment in one of the areas of broadly understood culture, where this Polishness could be propagated.
- A rooster with an extract made of Łowicz cutouts
- The shell jug is inspired by the pre-war publication of the Bluszcz magazine
What traditional spider?
Today, such decorations are still made in the countryside and in the cities. To see how a traditional spider is made, we went to Pałuki to Bracholin. There, paper spiders from Pałuki organize a common room all year round, but we found a workshop with their making.
– We know the book “Polish Christmas Tree”. There is a lot of wealth of Christmas decorations from many regions of Poland. But our Pałuki ones are not there. We make the real Pałuki, taught by Małgorzata Bołka, an instructor from the House of Culture in Szubin. The skeleton is best made of rye or wheat-rye straw. They are the most common. The skeleton may be cylindrical, pyramidal or bell-shaped. The flowers are made of tissue paper. Crepes will turn out to wrap around the circular rod in the bell – says Violetta Łochowicz, the president of the Bracholin Housewives Association.
The best for connecting straws in the skeleton is a cordon. He is the strongest. It takes about fifteen hours to make a skeleton 50-70 cm high. But bracholin housewives say that after that it takes much more to fold flowers from tissue paper. once of straw and tissue paper, cloth strips, beans, peas or feathers were used to create spiders. Spiders were hung on Christmas and Easter, most often in corners, next to holy pictures. It symbolized luck, happiness and love. I had to hang low enough that anyone could convince them of this good omen.
- Such paper merry-go-rounds decorated the Christmas trees of our great-grandmothers
Jagoda makes Christmas tree decorations already in May
On Facebook you can find a profile with an interesting name “Polish Christmas tree – old Christmas tree decorations / Easter eggs, cutouts, spiders”. It is created by Jagoda Nastała, who lives today in Łódź, but was raised in Wolany near Kłodzko in Lower Silesia. She became interested in pre-war Christmas tree decorations when she wanted a mushroom bauble.
– I’ve been looking for those toadstool bombs. I looked for them on auction sites. I found other ornaments, etc. My Mom’s Christmas Tree book. It contained a bibliography, pre-war titles. I found a few at auctions, and “Polish Christmas Tree” is available for free on polona.pl. I also use the “Polish Christmas tree” by Felicja Gosieniecka from 1927 and the publication of the pre-war magazine “Bluszcz” under the title “Christmas tree decorations” from 1926. Everything is available on Polona – says Jagoda, who works in hospital administration during the day.
Blueberry according to the price of “recipes” does colorful miracles. He likes spiders and podłaźniczki the most. they are distinguished by pyramidal ones, in which peacock eyes hang instead of flower balls. Lily pendants also come from a pre-war book, as well as colorful roosters, fish or three kings’ heads. natural straw, colored paper, technical block and wooden sticks, mainly for skewers, but also eggshells, which are used in Christmas tree decorations. Sometimes he modernizes the patterns and uses gold thread for wrapping.
– Decorative Christmas tree decorations in May. I’m actually getting to them as soon as Easter is over. I dress up in these ornaments every year for the Christmas tree at home. When they are combined with old-style single-color lamps with warm white light, it is beautiful Jagoda concludes.
- A spider in the shape of a cylinder. It used to hang in the corner by the holy pictures
photo. Jagoda Nastała, Karolina Kasperek
Article published in Tygodnik Poradnik Rolniczy 51/2022 on ul. 114. If you want to read more articles, buy access to all content on TPR:Z todayorder to subscribe.