Old-Slavic mythology: Świętowit / Svetovid

Świętowit / Światowid / Swantowit / Swantewit / Svątevit / Svetovid / Svantovit - one of the major Slavic deities, god of war, fertility and abundance.

"Świętowit" by Stanisław Jakubowski

WHAT IS ACTUALLY KNOWN?

Lachy Sądeckie costume - a guide to Polish folk costumes

Lachy Sądeckie is a group associated with the Nowy Sącz county in southern Poland, region called Sądecczyzna.

Photo © Zespół Tańca Ludowego "Poznań" AWF

"Lachy" is a plural form of "Lach", which is an ancient term describing an ethnic Pole. Roots of the name come from an old Slavic legend about Lech, Čech/Czech and Rus - three legendary brothers of whom Lech was the founder of Lechia (Poland). The terms derived from the Lach/Lech name have survived for example in Lithuanian and Hungarian languages, where Poland is still nowadays named Lenkija and Lengyelország.

Lachy Sądeckie have a few subgroups. The costumes vary a little between Northern/West, bordering the Kraków East region and Southern/East, landupheaval parts of the region. According to dialektologia site, the main Lachy subgroups are from Nowy Sącz, Limanowa, Szczyrzyc, Myślenice and Dobra; the main center of Lachy are around Podegrodzie.

Approx. area of Lachy Sądeckie costume in Poland

Pisanki - decorating the easter eggs in Poland

I moved!

Please read an updated and expanded version of this articleon my wordpress blog:


https://lamusdworski.wordpress.com/2016/03/13/pisanki/

With love, Lamus Dworski

Kraków costume - a guide to Polish folk costumes

Kraków costume - one of the most well-known of the Polish regional costumes, which grew to the rank of a national costume. Sadly, also the most generalized and simplified due to the modern mass-media approach in many cases. How should it look like?

© ZPiT AGH im. Wiesława Białowąsa "KRAKUS"

Origins of the Kraków costume can be traced back to the Renaissance era, but the modern version of it started forming only around the beginning of 18th century. After the difficult times of the 19th century when Poland lost independence it gained the rank of "national costume of Poland":

A Cracow costume is the only peasants' attire which was promoted to the rank of a Polish national costume. This decision was made on patriotic grounds, with the Cracow's peasants’ participation in the Kościuszko Uprising as a main factor. Even the Uprising's leader, Tadeusz Kościuszko, used to wear the Cracow costume (so he dressed "like a peasant") just so that he would not be recognised by Russian spies. Kościuszko's popularity contributed to the popularisation of the Cracow costume among the Poles in general. Some of the costume's elements were applied to the uniforms worn by participants of the 19th century national uprisings. This popularity of the Cracowian costume, especially in its female version, was then reinforced by the Cracow’s intelligence of the Young Poland (Młoda Polska) movement, who promoted it as a new fashion. [source: The State Ethnographical Museum in Warsaw]

What most of the people know as "Kraków costume" actually varies among different villages (which in some cases have become districts of the modern city over time) around the Kraków's old center, such as: Bronowice, Tyniec, Grojec, Wieliczka, Morawica, Olszanica, and so on. However, there are many common elements that make the Kraków costume easy to recognize... and also easy to generalize. Either way, the Kraków costume allows to show a lot of individual approach in detailing, especially as it comes to women's fashion.

Approx. area of the Kraków costume in Poland within Małopolska region.

Old superstitions

I moved to Wordpress, please read the article here:

https://lamusdworski.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/old-superstitions/

Sorry for the inconvenience!