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Preserving tradition
Photo
Kataryna Flasher, 6, of Youngstown, above, watches the palm-weaver demonstration during the Polish Easter Traditions Workshop and Celebration on Sunday.
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Painting Easter eggs, weaving palms and baking Easter bread were customs in many Polish families, and a group with Polish roots wants to keep those practices going.
The Krakowiaki Polish Folk Circle sponsored a free Polish Easter Traditions Workshop and Celebration on Sunday at the former Our Lady of Hungary Parish Hall on North Belle Vista Avenue.
Participants learned to paint eggs using hot wax and weave intricate designs out of palm leaves. Pirogi, kielbasa and other Polish staples were available to buy.
Proceeds were to fund costumes for folk circle members.
Aundrea Cika of Polish Youngstown said the group is trying to preserve traditions for those who grew up with them as well as teach them to those who didn’t.
“To us, the value is sharing it,” she said.
The group offers a Polish cooking course, and on Sunday, participants were learning to bake Easter bread, an eggy, yellow bread popular during the holiday. After the course filled up quickly, the chef agreed to offer the instruction for two more sessions, Cika said.
This marks the third year for the Easter workshop, and they host a Christmas workshop as well.
Cika grew up in Liberty, and every year she went to Polish summer camp in Pennsylvania where she learned Polish dances, egg painting and other customs.
Now her children attend a similar camp in Michigan. She believes maintaining traditions is important.
“You can’t understand where you’re going if you don’t know where you come from,” she said.
Lawrence Kozlowski, an author and folklorist, weaved palms into roses, crosses and other designs.
“I grew up in Pittsburgh and during Holy Week, all of my friends would be out playing football and other things,” Kozlowski said. “We stayed inside, palm weaving and Easter-egg painting and making the traditional food. When I was in fourth, fifth, sixth grade, I just wanted to be normal.”
As he grew older, though, it was something he wanted to do, particularly as his siblings had children and they wanted to pass the traditions on to them.
Some of those practices have changed, but he believes what’s important is whatever brings families together.
“This really is a connection to the past,” he said.
In most cultures, families come together around food as Americans, for example, gather around Thanksgiving dinner.
Irene Yelton of Canfield sat in on one of the palm-weaving demonstrations and bought a book so she could practice the art at home.
“I’d like to teach my grandchildren to do it,” she said.
Yelton, who is Polish, enjoys different crafts but worries that much of that is being lost for younger generations.
Three of her grandchildren live in California and during one visit to them, she made babka, or Easter bread, for the family.
The children enjoyed watching it rise, seeing their grandmother punch it back down and watching it rise again.
That’s one tradition that stuck. After her visit, the family started making bread, she said.