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Polish festival features polkas
Photo
Sophie Herschmeyer, 6 of Youngstown, decorates a wreath Thursday during the Sobotka Polish Summer Solstice Celebration at Fellows Riverside Gardens. Traditional stories indicate that women released wreaths on the river as a way to help them find a suitor.
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
Roberto Rijavec was listening to a five-piece polka band before he became something of a sixth member.
“I sat here and listened to the music,” the 8-year-old said. “The girl who plays the sax gave me a tambourine and I said, ‘I guess I’ll play it,’ so I’ve been playing all of their songs.”
Roberto, of Fort Myers, Fla., was referring to the Cleveland-based Chardon Polka Band, which provided much of the entertainment for Thursday’s third annual Sobotka Polish Summer Solstice Celebration.
The Polish Youngstown organization sponsored the five-hour gathering at Mill Creek MetroParks’ D.D. & Velma Davis Education and Visitors Center in Fellows Riverside Gardens.
The event was to reintroduce and celebrate various centuries-old Polish traditions and customs, noted Aundrea Cika Heschmeyer, Polish Youngstown’s director.
Sobotka started as a pagan ritual to celebrate the sun as a source of light and warmth on the longest day of the year, which this year falls on Wednesday. The tradition has changed over many centuries but continues to be a time for people to enjoy the season with friends and family.
Also enjoying family was Roberto’s grandmother, Susan Strineka of Warren, who came mainly to hear the polka band, which entertained several dozen attendees on the visitors center’s patio with its brand of Polish and Slovenian polkas.
The band’s repertoire also delved into a few popular American songs such as the famous Peter, Paul and Mary hit “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane.”
“I heard them in Cleveland, heard the band’s CD and learned their songs,” said Strineka, who also came with her husband, two daughters and 7-year-old granddaughter, Susan.
Many attendees participated in a Polish dance wearing colorful wreaths on their heads, while others made or brought flower wreaths for a contest to be judged for prizes, Heschmeyer said.
Wearing wreaths is in keeping with a Polish tradition called Rzucanie Wiankow, which is the rite of the throwing of wreaths.
Young women dressed in white, wove special garlands or wreaths from symbolic herbs, added messages and candles to their wreaths after dark and set them afloat on rivers, Heschmeyer explained. It was hoped that suitable males would return with the wreaths, she continued.
“The idea is that stuff from the past can be done with a modern twist,” Heschmeyer said of Thursday’s gathering, which also featured plenty of food and a 50/50 raffle.
Polish Youngstown, established in fall 2008, is an umbrella organization in partnership with various public and private entities and is dedicated to promoting, developing and supporting Polish events throughout the Mahoning Valley, its website says.
“We want to educate the community on all things Polish,” Heschmeyer said.