Christmas Traditions and Customs
As Advent a time of peace and introspection comes to an end, the joyous celebration of Christmas, the most family centered Polish holiday begins. The earliest recorded descriptions of Christmas celebrations date back to the 3d Century. By the beginning of the 4th Century, the Church had designated the time near the winter solstice, December […]
A Pole wins Nobel equivalent in humanities
Polish philosopher, Prof. Leszek Kolakowski has won the million dollar John W. Kluge award for his achievements in social sciences and humanities. This prize awarded by the Library of Congress of the United States is designed to reward work in disciplines not covered by the Nobel prizes, including history, religion, philosophy, politics, criticism in the […]
A QUESTION of HONOR…
Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud have written a remarkable work concerning Polish pilots in Britain’s Royal Air Force during World War II. A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron, Forgotten Heroes of World War II focuses on an important aspect of the relationship between Poland and the Allies all too often neglected. Olson and Cloud […]
Paderewski in Warsaw
On February 1, 1919, Ill Secolo, a Millan newspaper interviewed Józef Pi³sudski. Józef Pilsudski expressed the following: “I took power in an unusually difficult moment for our nation. No political authority had the trust of the people. The rigid policy of activism* held by the Regency deprived them of political support. Enemies on all sides […]
World War II on Polish land
Sixty-four years separate us from September 1939 and from the German invasion of Poland. Gradually, the eyewitnesses diminish, left are graves, memories, legends, scripts of the historical battles, movements of armies, names of commanders, and losses that grew with every passing day of the defensive. From today’s perspective, many scenarios can be derived, but then […]