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ESSENTIAL CITY GUIDES
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Features
- Beer Gardens
- Polish Name Days (Imieniny)
- Flower Power
- Local Likes & Dislikes
- Polish Christmas Carols (Kolędy)
- Andrzejki
- The Vistula/Wisła
- Czesław Miłosz
- Juwenalia
- May Days
- Valentine's Day in Krakow
- Hey Handsome...
- The Obwarzanek
- The Maluch
- Stained Glass in Kraków
- Hot Beer?
- Młoda Polska
- Sonderaktion Krakau
- Polish Vodka
- Cracovian Cuisine, P-Z
- Cracovian Cuisine, A-O
- A Polish Easter
- The Zbruch Idol
- Witkacy
- Szopki Krakowska
- Wooden Architecture of Malopolska
- Jagiellonian University
- What's in a Name?
- Abandoned Kraków
- Notable Local Alumni
- Dogs
- Błędowska Desert
- Further Reading
- Lenin in Kraków
- Dishing Up History
- Where to find Krakow In Your Pocket
- The Hejnał
More features:
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Sonderaktion Krakau
After the invasion of Poland, the Nazis set about culturally crippling the country by eliminating it’s intellectual elite.... -
Cracovian Cuisine, A-O
Polish food is famous for being simple, hearty and almost uniformly off-white in colour. You simply haven’t had a thorough sampling of it until you’ve tried all the traditional dishes below.... -
May Days
Spring ushers in the arrival of not only fair weather to Poland, but also the country’s ‘National Holiday Season’, which in addition to Easter offers two other dates to note down in the diary:First up is May 1st, otherwise known as Labour Day, and a direct leftover from the communist lurch.... -
Hey Handsome...
If you find yourself being approached by a young lady or ladies taking an overactive interest in you and suggesting you join them for a drink, please exercise common sense and scepticism.... -
Polish Christmas Carols (Kolędy)
The singing of holiday carols (kolędy) is extremely popular in Poland, and the Poles possess a vast, seemingly inexhaustible songbook of ancient tunes traditionally sung this time of year.... -
The Obwarzanek
Any culinary journey through Kraków is likely to start with the obwarzanek. A chewy dough ring sprinkled (usually extremely unevenly) with salt, poppy or sesame seeds, obwarzanki are sold from rolling carts on every other street corner in Kraków, and are so inescapable they’ve become an unofficial symbol of the city.... -
Dishing Up History
Undamaged by the Nazi cyclone, Kraków’s Old Town is one of the few town centres in Poland which remains in its original form, and as such represents a breathing history lesson.... -
Młoda Polska
In the late 18th century Poland was suffering a little bit of a crisis: it didn’t exist. At least not on the map, anyway.... -
Where to find Krakow In Your Pocket
If you would like a copy delivered to you outside of Poland please click here. Or if you are in town ... -
The Maluch
Like the Czech Škoda and the East German Trabant, the Polish Maluch has served several purposes during its lifetime; a Godsend for families behind the Iron Curtain, source of amusement for smirking foreigners and now, as a cult icon for nostalgists.... -
What's in a Name?
The word Kraków originates from Krak (or Krakus), the fabled ruler of the Vistulan tribes, who according to legend founded the city sometime around 700AD and who, among a great many other possible things, valiantly led an army against the Gaulles in Carinthia.... -
Szopki Krakowska
One of Kraków’s most unique and singular Christmas traditions is the popular creation of ‘szopki.... -
Notable Local Alumni
You could write a book on Kraków’s Jagiellonian University, and indeed a number of boffins have.... -
Flower Power
Lads, listen up. In concert with the societal consensus that Polish women are beautiful, the country's daughters have been dutifully trained to wield their sex in the form of elaborate and flirtatious gender games, and you will be expected, if not helpless, to play along....
A Polish Easter
Easter decorations on Kraków's Market Square
As a deeply Catholic country, Poland takes its Easter celebrations seriously; throughout the period, the visiting foreigner can expect most shops and many bars and restaurants to be either empty or closed beginning on Good Friday (06/04/2012). A traditional day of abstinence, dutifully observing Catholics visit church to attend stations of the cross – a series of prayers following Jesus Christ’s route to his crucifixion.
On Easter Saturday (07/04/2012) Poles, typically children, bring brightly decorated baskets of food to church to have them blessed. These baskets traditionally contain a piece of sausage, bread, egg, mazurek cake (a traditional Easter cake), some salt, some horseradish and a symbolic ram made from dough. In addition ‘pisanki’ are included - painted boiled eggs which have been prepared in the lead-up to Easter by the whole family. Each of these components of the basket has a symbolic meaning. The eggs and meat symbolize new life, fertility and health, the salt protects against bad spirits and helps you follow the right path, the bread symbolizes the body of Christ and by this future prosperity in terms of always having food to feed yourself, the horseradish represents strength and physical health and the cake represents skills and talents needed for the coming year. Rezurekcja (Resurrection), a traditional mass with procession, is held Saturday night or Easter morning depending on parish tradition.
On Easter Sunday (08/04/2012), families gather together to celebrate with an Easter breakfast of żurek (Polish rye soup), bread, eggs, sausage, horseradish and poppy seed cakes. Each person places a small piece of the blessed food on their plate before exchanging wishes with other members of the family. The symbolic dough ram is placed on the table to symbolize the resurrection of Christ.
Things take a more light-hearted twist on Easter Monday (09/04/2012). Known as Śmingus Dyngus the day is dominated by public water fights and everyone is given carte blanche to drench anyone they see with water. You, as a foreigner, are not exempt from this practice, so move fast if you see someone armed with a water pistol or bucket and a grin. Although it’s never pleasant to have a jug of water thrown over your head, this is an improvement from the past when young people were beaten with sticks from Palm Sunday trees – explained away as bringing luck and strength for the year ahead.