Best of Poland (our trip to the south - west of Poland)

Hello European friends,
We would like to drop some lines about our 3 days trip to one of the most beautiful part of our country called Kotlina Kłodzka, on the border with Czech Republic. We spent there 3 days, we stayed in an old hotel 2 nights. The sun were shining all 3 days. It was very hot. We were climbing to the top in the mountains, we were going down to the Golden mine in Złoty Stok (złoty means golden), we were drinking water on the oldest Polish spa. What is interesting Lower Silesia was part of Prussia, Austria and Czech Kingdom. We prayed in the  sanctuary Wambierzyce (ALbendorf). We didn't sleep a lot at night. It was exciting we had fun and enjoyed very much. Greeting from Poland
Let's have a look at some pictures in "Holidays in our countries"
Polish students from Rybnik

Easter eggs from Poland

We have still people colouring the eggs before Easter as a traditional custom. Let's have a look.

Pictures comes from nowiny.pl
Happy Easter to every member of our project!

WET MONDAY at EASTER in POLAND

Smigus Dyngus and other Polish old Easter Traditions

Smigus Dyngus (shming-oos-ding-oos) is an unusual tradition of Easter Monday. This day (Monday after Easter Sunday) is called also in Polish "Wet Monday", in Polish: "Mokry Poniedzialek" or "Lany Poniedzialek". Easter Monday is also a holiday in Poland. It was traditionally the day when boys tried to drench girls with squirt guns or buckets of water. "Smigus" comes from the word smigac meaning swish with a cane since men tap the ankles and legs of the girls. Dyngus comes probably from German word dingen which means to come to an agreement since the girls needed to give men money to stop being swish and splash. The more a girl is sprayed with water, the higher are her chances to get married. Usually groups of young boys are waiting for accidental passerby near the farmer markets or in the corners of the streets. Older men behave like gentlemen spraying their wives with cologne water rather than with the regular one. The girls got their chances for revenge the following day. They can spray boys with water as much as they wanted on Tuesday.


Dousing may have pagan roots, or it may reflect Christian rebirth and baptism. It may hark back to the baptism of Poland's Mieszko I and his court on Easter Monday in 966. Whether the tradition is historic or religious in origin, Smigus-Dyngus remains a significant, well-loved Polish tradition.
American Polonia descendants of the 1890s-1930s immigration often celebrate Dyngus Day with a polka dance.
http://culture.polishsite.us/articles/art31fr.htm

What do you think of this logo?

By my students, Marcin Przesdzienk, called 15 years old.

The best of Poland

I live nearby. In this forest there was the biggest fire in 1992. My region - Silesia seems to be dirty and industrial but let's have a look at this picture.

The first picture represents the european bizon called ŻUBR in Polish. In the coat of Romani you can see the bizon. We have a lot of bizons especially in the forest on the eastern border. But to tell you the truth the european bizons survived in Europe thanks to these animals living in Silesian forests.