Gorolski Swieto
Encyclopedia
Jablunkov
Jablunkov is a town in Frýdek-Místek District, Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has a population of 5,750 , 23% of the population are Poles. Jablunkov lies between the Silesian and Moravian-Silesian Beskids mountain ranges, in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia, and is the...
(Polish: Jabłonków), Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, the first weekend in August. It lasts from Friday to Sunday. It is organized by the Polish Cultural and Educational Union
Polish Cultural and Educational Union
Polski Związek Kulturalno-Oświatowy is a Polish organization in the Czech Republic. It represents the Polish minority in the Czech Republic together with the Congress of Poles...
(PZKO) and the folklore group Gorol and preserves the traditions of the Zaolzie Poles. It is the largest cultural and folklore festival in the Zaolzie
Zaolzie
Zaolzie is the Polish name for an area now in the Czech Republic which was disputed between interwar Poland and Czechoslovakia. The name means "lands beyond the Olza River"; it is also called Śląsk zaolziański, meaning "trans-Olza Silesia". Equivalent terms in other languages include Zaolší in...
area, drawing thousands of spectators each day of festivities. In 2007 almost 20,000 people visited the festival. Notable personalities, mainly from the Czech Republic and Poland, also visit the festival each year. In 2007 Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Mirek Topolánek
Mirek Topolánek
Mirek Topolánek is a former prime minister of the Czech Republic and former President of the European Council. A member of the Civic Democratic Party, he was chairman of the center-right party between November 2002 and March 2010, succeeding Václav Klaus, who was elected President in 2003.On 24...
visited the festival.
The primary goal of the festival is the presentation of Gorol
Gorals
The Gorale are a group of indigenous people found along southern Poland, northern Slovakia, and in the region of Cieszyn Silesia in the Czech Republic...
folklore groups from the environs of Jabłonków. Folklore groups from the rest of the Zaolzie region and the Polish part of the Beskid Mountains
Beskids
The Beskids , ) is a traditional name for a series of Eastern European mountain ranges.- Definition :The Beskids are approximately 600 km in length and 50–70 km in width...
are invited each year. Folklore groups from other countries also appear.
The festival has its roots in the earlier Święta Gór (Feasts of the Mountains), which were gatherings of Gorals from Jabłonków parish. After the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the idea of reviving the tradition was considered by local Polish activists. The General Committee of the PZKO decided on 22 July 1948 that a festival be held that August, later rescheduled to 5 September. At the suggestion of Karol Piegza
Karol Piegza
Karol Piegza was a Polish teacher, writer, folklorist, photographer, and painter from Zaolzie region of Cieszyn Silesia.-Biography:...
, Polish writer and folklorist, it was named Święto Góralskie. The current name, Gorolski Święto, is the same as the other but in the local dialect and has been used since 1967. The first festival in 1948 was successful, and so it was decided to hold it annually. It became more and more popular and attracted ever more visitors from an ever broader area.
Several Gorols working as organizers and storytellers during the festival became very popular, particularly Władysław Niedoba (Jura spod Grónia), Ludwik Cienciała (Maciej), and Władysław Młynek (Hadam z Drugi Izby). The main storyteller of the festival is now Tadeusz Filipczyk (Filip). Since 1961 Niedoba has been responsible for the program of the festival. Młynek started his organizational work in 1973, and Filipczyk in 1986. Władysław Młynek's most important contribution to the festival is that he helped to join Gorolski Święto with Tydzień Kultury Beskidzkiej (Week of Beskid Culture), a cultural and folklore festival in Wisła and other municipalities of the Beskids
Beskids
The Beskids , ) is a traditional name for a series of Eastern European mountain ranges.- Definition :The Beskids are approximately 600 km in length and 50–70 km in width...
of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. The result of this cooperation is the annual appearance in Gorolski Święto of top Polish folklore groups and also groups from other countries. The first festival in 1948 was organized by only 21 people, and now the number of organizers reaches into the hundreds.
The festival is now held in Lasek Miejski (Town Forest). During the festival many small wooden cottages are set up, managed by local branches of the PZKO from surrounding Beskid villages. Visitors can buy there traditional food and beverages, mostly traditional miodula (mead
Mead
Mead , also called honey wine, is an alcoholic beverage that is produced by fermenting a solution of honey and water. It may also be produced by fermenting a solution of water and honey with grain mash, which is strained immediately after fermentation...
). These wooden cottages have been a feature of Gorolski Święto since 1969. A stage was built in 1985.