Polish Adventure ~ A Wedding in Lubawa (Day 1)

Lubawa is a teeny-tiny town in north eastern Poland. It is the place that both of my parents were born, and one that holds many dear and painful childhood memories for me. My family's route to immigrating to Canada was not an easy one, and while my dad was in Canada for three years and my mom for 11 months without the kids, we stayed with my very, very generous and kind aunt and uncle in Lubawa. As an adult, I can't help but admire the great sacrifice that my aunt and uncle made by taking in 3 children under 6 years old, while having 2 of their own. On top of this, my aunt was pregnant. I will forever be grateful for their selflessness.

Anyway, the reason why I am telling you this is because the cousin that was getting married in Lubawa is the daughter of the aunt and uncle that so graciously took care of us while our parents established a better life for us in Canada. Because we are the same age, I consider her to be like a sister to me. We went to kindergarten together, and later, when I came to visit for summer vacations as a teen, she was my partner in crime. Hence, this wedding was very special to me.

So get your shot glass ready, and pull your wodka (the true spelling) out of the fridge, I will try to take you step by step through a Polish wedding:


(as a side note, I think that Matthew may be the only man in all of Poland with curly hair :P)

A Polish wedding is not simply a one day affair. It is a full out celebration consisting of three full days of binge eating, drinking, and dancing. The fun begins with the Polterabent: a Polish/German custom (side note history lesson: our part of Poland was under German/Prussian occupation for close to 300 years before WWI) where anyone from the community that wants to come and wish the soon-to-be-married couple well is invited to bring a collection of bottles and jars and smash the glass on the porch of the bride's house. Traditionally, the bride and groom were supposed to clean the glass up themselves to prove that they would work together on the household chores. The people "testing" them could only be persuaded to stop throwing glass if the groom persuaded them with enough wodka.

In the modern version of the Polterabent, some things have changed:


The glass is now thrown into a self made bin for easy clean up (The sign says "Wishing You Luck").



And somethings haven't changed at all:

There is still a lot of wodka :P

If you ever go to a Polterabent, you can also expect a lot of food;

My aunt and I with a tub of freshly made kielbasa on the morning of the party

And, in true Polish fashion, someone is bound to whip out an accordion and play a polka or two:


All in all, night one of the celebration ended with only a few casualties :P Stay tuned for the actual wedding!