The irony of a Fiat 500 debut in the North America last year is that the high gasoline prices finally forced middle-class Americans to accept mini cars ridiculed for the last 50 years as European tuna cans on wheels. Introduction of the Mini Cooper, followed by Smart Car, followed by Honda Fit, followed by Chevy Spark, and many others, flooded the market with new wave of fuel efficient mini vehicles.
It makes me laugh when I read the Fiat 500 reviews raving about "surprisingly spacious", "retro-adorable", "cute", small car with "personality". Let's be honest, it's just a small car trying to take advantage of the mysterious youth days of the babyboomers who happened to visit Europe. And it's not that cheap either.
What puts even bigger smile on my face is the story of a Polish Fiat 126p produced in Poland (under Italian license) between 1973 and 2000. The communist government realized that mass produced Fiat will be the answer to wants and needs of Polish families. And, they were right. Everyone wanted the orange tuna can on wheels. Poles would pre-pay for the car and wait years to finally receive one. Fiat 126p was easy to maintain, rear wheel drive, small car with the engine in the back that you could start with a stick in case you pulled the metal starter lever too quickly and ripped the metal cable. You could pack a family of 5 in this thing with half of dozen suitcases on the roof and travel 10 hours to the Baltic Sea and everyone was excited just to be independent.
Couple of Fiat 126p were imported to Chicago, more for fun than everyday use and only one or two remain in hands of a local car shop owners. Americans had a blast when they saw one passing by making characteristic engine sound. Different times, different era.
Today, the tables have turned. Americans are lining up to buy small cars and all of a sudden small is cool and trendy. Would Poles ridicule Americans for driving tiny Fiat 500? It all depends on the situation of their wallets, here in US, and in Poland. One thing for sure, Poles who experienced Fiat 126p in Poland are not going back in time. It was cute while it lasted but believe me, Fiat 500 will not be a new status symbol anytime soon.
YouTube is known for all kinds of wacky videos but from time to time, we find a real gem. About six months ago, Polish reporter living in New York City, Max Kolonko, launched his MaxTV YouTube channel and instantly became a hit among the Polish community.
What's his secret? He's motto "I say it how it is", became a catch phrase for his politically incorrect videos. Why politically incorrect? Because he reports the facts in an unfiltered fashion, without the major-media fluff, omitting facts, or cutouts. Poles are tired of a state-controlled media or questionable private media conglomerates, hence the craving for a down-to-earth reporter who will report the news straight up.
Keep them coming Max Kolonko. Check out some of his videos.
While driving around Chicago, you will notice all kids of stickers, bumper stickers, logos, and customized car registration plates. Every immigrant group has a set of the "secret codes" and so does the Polish community. The obvious ones, Polish flag and Polish Eagle, are easy to spot but the customized registration plates spelled out in Polish are a different story.
Couple of days ago, I got an interesting one. Check out the picture below. It states "PAN BOG 1". It translates to "Lord God 1". Who knew? The Creator is actually Polish. Like with other things in life, connections, connections, connections.
After reading several British online articles, it seems that the Eastern European wave of immigration to Great Britain is still one of the top subjects of the concerned British citizens. Because of the sheer numbers (800,000 or more), Poles are singled out as the one nationality that is overtaking the fragile British job market. In my previous post "Can Brits accept Poles living in Britain?", I had a chance to discuss the subject with the interested parties.
As a Polish immigrant living in the US for 19 years, I understand the pushback and worries of the native population when it comes to a rapid influx of a foreign culture. I probably shouldn't mention native population realizing the fate of the native American Indians. All my Polish friends traveled the same immigrant road so both sides have valid arguments.
Perhaps US is a bit different when it comes to treatment of the immigrants but the struggle of the new immigrants is very similar. Lack of English language skills, unknown environment, learning how things work, getting around bureaucracy, and homesickness are the roadblocks of every immigrant.
So why are the Brits are so afraid of the new immigrants?
They don't understand the culture and language. All the sz, rz, cz, dz sounds just don't make any sense.
They think that the immigrants steal their jobs. The BIG question is which jobs?
They want the immigrants to blend in and fully adopt the British culture. For the most part the tea time and cucumber sandwich.
They are afraid of the whole social warfare system collapse. I would deflect that worry toward the non-European refugees. Let's leave it at that.
They want the immigrants to pay their fair share of taxes. I suspect that most of them do already.
They can't deal with the increase of the crime. Statistics dear Watson!
Those are my 6 more important worries. Feel free to comment and add more below.
Why Brits should be grateful for the new Eastern European immigrants?
Kids of the immigrants will basically pay for your retirement. This is a big one.
Your aging population will get a healthy kick of working-age, young workers.
Your stiff culture will be injected with revitalized and lively traditions. Get ready for some kielbasa, pierogi, bigos, makowiec, Wielkanoc, Boze Narodzenie, Constituion Day… the list goes on.
Your country will save tons of money on trade education since Poland and other counties already paid for the training. In return, you can spend money on our kids who will repay you in about 50 years.
Recently, BBC came out with a great documentary about Eastern European immigrants in a town of Peterborough. The best comment: Part 3 @ 5:29. Watch it and draw your own conclusion.
Since 2004, May 2nd is the official Polish Flag Day. The Polish flag consists of two horizontal stripes: white on the top and red on the bottom. Variation of the flag displaying a crowned, white eagle national coat of arms on the white stripe is flown abroad and at sea. Read more about the Polish flag here.
White and red were officially adopted as national colors in 1831. They are of heraldic origin and derive from the tinctures (colors) of the coats of arms of the two constituent nations of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, i.e. the White Eagle of Poland and the Pursuer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a white knight riding a white horse, both on a red shield. Prior to that, Polish soldiers wore cockades of various color combinations. The national flag was officially adopted in 1919. Since 2004, Polish Flag Day is celebrated on May 2.
The flag is flown continuously on the buildings of the highest national authorities, such as the parliament and the presidential palace. Other institutions and many Polish people fly the national flag on national holidays and other special occasions of national significance. Current Polish law does not restrict the use of the national flag without the coat of arms as long as the flag is not disrespected.
May 2nd is a second public holiday after the May 1st, currently known as State Holiday, before the May 3rd, which is a Polish Constitution Day.
Besides the important religious holidays like Christmas, Easter, and Corpus Christi, the three day long May holiday is the longest public holiday in Poland. Even the reminiscence of the old, communist International Labor Day of May 1st, won't shadow the obvious benefits of the couple days off from work.
So if you sit in traffic in Chicago and notice Polish flags on cars and trucks, now you know why.
This year’s Chicago celebration of the Polish Constitution of 1791 will be held on Saturday, May 4th, 2013 with another massive parade on Columbus Drive in Grant Park on Chicago’s beautiful lakefront. This 122st Chicago parade in honor of this historic document, the first democratic constitution in Europe and second in the world only to the United States Constitution is once again expected to draw 250,000 eager revelers to the lakefront and untold thousands more to the television coverage of the parade expected to once again be provided by ABC-7 and Polish stations.
Time and location: 11:30 AM on Columbus Drive and Balbo, in front of Buckingham Fountain in Chicago.
Out of the all Polish traditions, the Easter celebration is one of the most pronounced traditions in Polish culture. Combination of the Roman Catholic faith and strong identity of various Polish regions make the Easter the most important holiday in the country.
Poles celebrate The Holy Week (Wielki Tydzień) with the intense preparations for the upcoming Easter Sunday starting on Palm Sunday.
Definition: Holy Week is the week preceding Easter and the final week of Lent. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday. Holy Week includes Holy Thursday (also known as Maundy Thursday) and Good Friday, which, together with Holy Saturday, are known as the Triduum. Before the revision of the liturgical calendar in 1969, Holy Week was the second week of Passiontide; in the current calendar, Passiontide is synonymous with Holy Week.
During Holy Week, Christians commemorate the Passion of Christ, Who died on Good Friday in preparation for the sins of mankind, and rose on Easter Sunday to give new life to all who believe. Thus, while Holy Week is solemn and sorrowful, it also anticipates the joy of Easter through the recognition of God's goodness in sending His Son to die for our salvation. Source
On Palm Sunday (Niedziela Palmowa), Poles bring their “palms” to church for blessing. Since there are no actual palm trees in Poland, the “palms” are made from pussy willows, colorful paper, and other greenery. Check out this great description of “palm” tradition here.
On Good Friday, the local firemen begin the watch next to the tomb of Jesus. Having done the watch as a teenager, I remember how important it was for us to walk the line and keep the straight pose while holding the swords being dressed up i the official uniforms. I got a little pale during my turn but that's a story for another time.
On Holy Saturday, everyone attends the morning blessing of the food baskets (koszyk ze święconką). Kids prepare painted eggs (pisanki or kraszanki) using wax or boiling eggs in the onion peels. Depending on the region, the eggs can be decorated with all kinds of color paper. Hollow eggs (wydmuszki) are particularly crafty to make since one must drill small holes in the eggs to remove the yolk before decorating the fragile shell. Besides eggs, baskets usually contain salt, pepper, white or dark sausage, lamb made out of butter, wine, ham, horseradish, and yeast or coffee cake.
If you haven't had a white Polish sausage, trust me, you will enjoy it immensely. In fact, you might not go back to your regular sausage. Interestingly, many catholic churches in the United States, especially ones with a significant Polish or Polish-American population, adopted the food basket blessing tradition allowing the Americans to enrich their culture.
Take a look at the baskets from my church on Holy Saturday. Afterwards, the kids had a blast with the Easter egg hunt.
During the Easter Sunday lunch, right after the mass celebration, everyone at the table must taste at least a little bite of every blessed food before starting the Easter feast. Among regional dishes, traditional Polish Easter tablet should have: vegetable salad (sałatka jarzynowa), white borscht (biały barszcz or żurek wielkanocny) served with eggs, smoked bacon slab (boczek wędzony), deviled eggs (jajka faszerowane), white Polish sausage (biała kiełbasa), baked ham (szynka pieczona) Growing up in Poland, I still remember the smell of poppy seed roll (makowiec), yeast cake with plums (placek drożdżowy ze śliwkami), and classic cake (babka).
But wait, there’s more! In Poland, Monday after Easter is known as Wet Easter Monday (Śmigus-Dyngus aka Lany Poniedziałek), where boys spray the girls with buckets of water. You start as a little kid with little egg-shaped squirters and move on to empty dishwasher liquid bottles to finally end up with a 20 liter bucket as a teenager. The firemen also get some action with their hoses. Check out the video!
Yes, sometimes the fun gets out of control but it’s only one day a year so girls are forgiving. 2013 Wet Easter Monday will be substituted with a snowball fight since there is 15 cm of snow in most parts of Poland. Snow Easter bunnies are also planned so that will be interesting.
So there you have it, Polish Easter in a nutshell. If you want to add your traditions or foods, please contribute. Thanks.
