The Legendary Polka King Lil Wally – Walter Jagiello Polish American musician
Time to set the record straight
Unexplained questions and doubts as well as confusing customs, cuisine, lifestyles, culture, history and terminology???
By Robert Strybel, Polish/Polonian Lifestlyes Writer
There are various reasons why disagreements about their ancestral heritage occasionally flare up among Polonians, even within a single family. As regards PolAm things, worth recalling is the fact that customs, foods, way of calling things and other habits were all brought to America by the first generation of largely illiterate, Polish-born 19th-centurty immigrants, in other words the “Old Polonia.”
Their kids and grandkids accepted those things as standard, because “they were all from Poland, so they should know.” But that, like most everything in life, is not quite that simple, as this column will soon reveal. For starters, let’s kick off with that old perennial favorite – the Polka.
* The Polka is the Polish people’s favorite Polish dance!
REPLY: All depends how you define “Polish people.” If you are referring to Americans of Polish extraction, then that statement is largely true, but if you have in mind Poles in Poland, then it is not. Poland’s national dances are the Krakowiak, Kujawiak, Oberek, Mazurka and the stately Polonaise. The Polka IS danced and performed in Poland, but not as something par excellence Polish.
* Is the Polka Polish or Czech?
REPLY: It may be a little of both! It originated in Bohemia (a region of Czechia) and became a fashionable novelty dance in the ballrooms of Europe before spreading to America towards the end of the 19th century. Many Czechs claim the Polka got its name from the Czech word půlka (half) indicating the Polka’s half-step or 2/4 beat. Others insist it came from Polka, the Czech and Polish word for a Polish woman. Some emphasize the Polish connection with the argument that the Polka was based on the 2/4 beat Krakowiak, a traditional Polish dance.
* I’ve heard it said that Polish people are like radishes. What does that an?
REPLY: That was said when Poland was ruled by pro-Soviet Polish collaborators (1945-1989). Like all dictatorial regimes, the communists used economic blackmail to enforce compliance: “Play ball with us and you’ll get ahead… Or else!” To survive, Many Poles went along without accepting communism, hence they were like radishes: red only on the outside!
* One Polish grandma calls jellied pig’s feet galareta, the other says zimne nogi. Who is right?
REPLY: In Polish, the generic name of the dish, known in Britain as brawn, is galareta z nóżek wieprzowych (literally: pork-feet jelly). Zimne nogi (cold feet) is its popular colloquial nickname. A rural peasant name for this aspic is studzienina.
* When I was a little girl, I recall Busia never dumping egg shells in the trash.
REPLY: That was especially true of the blessed Easter eggs, as that was considered sacrilegious. Instead, they were buried in a field to help enrich the soil. That was done with unblessed egg shells as well but dumping them was not called sacrilegious.
* Pączki Day is the day before Ash Wednesday!
REPLY: True in America. That is how PolAms celebrate Shrove Tuesday. But in Poland, it is on Tłusty Czwartek (Fat Thursday), the last Thursday before Lent, that it is traditional for every Pole to consume at least one pączek.
*Poland once elected its kings making it Europe’s most democratic country.
REPLY: Not quite. It may have looked good on paper but in practice it led to anarchy. To get elected a candidate had to promise the nobility extra privileges, because only nobles were allowed to vote. The worst was Liberum Veto: a single dissenting vote could dissolve parliament and plunge the country into chaos.
* When I visited Poland I was surprised that most people kept their washing machine in the bathroom.
REPLY: That’s a fact. European homes in general are smaller than American ones so separate utility rooms are a rarity. A minority of Polish families have their washer in the kitchen.
* My late grandpa was from Poland, came in 1913 and he called whiskey vodka.
REPLY: When the Old Polonia began arriving in America in the latter half of the 1800s, only whiskey was widely available and the immigrants called it wódka, to them the generic term for any hard liquor. In Poland. The blanket term had been gorzałka, but it fell by the wayside when all the Old Polonians were calling alcohol wódka. Vodka was unknown in old-time America back then.
PLEASE NOTE: If there is something about things Polish or Polonian you do not understand or aren’t sure of, feel free to drop us a line at: [email protected].
