Polish Priests Blessing Things

April 14, 2017 3:58 AM

Celebrate holy week! Only the best in Polish priests blessing things. Cats, neurosurgical microscopes, well-endowed cycling teams, IKEA stores, and so much more.
posted by I_Love_Bananas (5 comments total)

Heh.

So, the neighbors across the street when I was growing up became fast friends with my family - especially the dad with Patercallipygos. Their father was Ukranian-born to Polish parents (in a displaced persons' camp right after World War II) and moved to the US when he was two; my father, meanwhile, had Polish grandparents on one side. So they bonded over "Yay Polish stuff", especially Polish food - and they also bonded over blues and rock and roll.

They started having these massive Easter celebrations when I was in my teens and in college, for which they started preparing three days in advance. My parents would go to their place on Good Friday night, and there, fueled by krupnik liqueur and the Stop Making Sense soundtrack, they would crank out hundreds of homemade pierogis in advance of the meal. They'd keep working on the advance prep through the weekend, followed by a blowout feast at the neighbors' house on Easter Sunday.

One year my father had a new camcorder and decided to videotape everything. And then later, for some reason, he brought the tape along to show at my own grandparents' house (Dad's own in-laws) the next time we visited them. Dad served as narrator, and most of the rest of the family came to watch - me, my grandparents, a couple aunts and uncles and cousins. We watched, giggling, through the pierogi cooking, with the frequent shots of the neighbor lip-syncing into a rolling pin to "Girlfriend is Better" and the rapidly-diminishing krupnik.

Then the next scene was Dad and the neighbor pulling up to a church. "Oh, this was cool," Dad explained. "This was on Saturday - Wally found a Ukranian church the next town over that does this. They bless the food for people for Easter Sunday." He explained as it went on - all the families who came to the blessing brought in colorful baskets, with samples of every kind of food they were going to have for their Easter feasts the following day. It was a simple ceremony - a bunch of little old ladies, and my Dad and the neighbor, all there with their baskets brimming with food; fresh beets and cabbage ready for cooking, cakes, bread, hams in their supermarket packaging, a couple sample pierogis, everything. They all gathered around the priest in a church basement as he blessed each one in turn, in Polish; my father's camerawork panned across each basket showing the bounty. We were all watching the tape fascinated.

Then finally my grandmother piped up: "Well, I think after the way you two were carrying on the night before, that food SHOULD be blessed!"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:49 AM on April 14, 2017 [17 favorites]

Too cool, I was just remembering this and describing it to a friend yesterday. Polish Easter BEST Easter! Bless that food!
posted by Meatbomb at 5:46 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

When I was living in Krakow many moons ago my upstairs neighbors had me over for Easter. The bishop was out in front of Mariacki church that afternoon blessing whatever people brought over, so we brought the fresh horseradish and this little figure of a lamb that the family had had for ages and got bless every year. I can't remember what the lamb was made out of--possibly Bakelite or something, it was that old. Anyway, there were hordes of people on the square and it was a jolly good time. Then back to the apartment where we stuffed our faces. Thanks for the memories!
posted by orrnyereg at 6:46 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ok, now I'm thinking about Polish Easter foods and I'm gonna have to make chalka or placek this weekend. Dangit.
posted by misskaz at 9:54 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

And buy a butter lamb.
posted by misskaz at 9:55 AM on April 14, 2017