The Specificity of Ritual Pastry in Northern Podlachia

Abstract

Pastry and ritual meals were closely connected with the annual agrarian cycle and folk beliefs. For Christmas, a kutia was prepared, for the New Year – a raw sausage was baked and wheat pancakes were fried, stork legs (bocianie łapy) were prepared for the Annunciation, pas­ka was baked for Easter, a korovai was served on Juria, and warenniki were cooked on Warwa­ru. In the Podlachian folk culture, pastry and ritual dishes were treated like holiness. Some were reserved for selected holidays and were prepared only once a year, whereas others, e. g. a raw sausage, wheat pancakes, scrambled eggs were included in the village menu, both holiday and everyday. They also played an important role in celebrating family celebrations such as wed­dings, funerals and births. Starting from the 1960s, the process of decline of traditional culture began, which resulted in the disappearance of the tradition of preparing pastry and ritual dishes in Podlachia. Today, we can only see them in open-air museums or at folklore events. Only the custom of making and eating kutia during the Christmas Eve Supper, as well as wakes and pominkowe dinners survived. Information about the others has been preserved in ethnographic literature and partly in the memories of the oldest generation.