Light a candle, don’t curse the darkness

Unfortunately many of our PolAm Homes and churches have turned off the lights.  They’ve taken down the Mangers, and put aside the carols which uplift spirits. 

What happens? People start taking St. John’s wort and vitamin D. Workplaces at least have learned to install more fluorescent light.  Some affluent parishioners take off for Florida. Frigid January doldrums have set in WNY.

Popes have known this for centuries, How? February in Latin means “fever-month,” just switch the “b” with “v”. In Rome it rarely snows, but days are darker.  I remember fourteen Roman Thursdays in a row of cold, damp, downpours, yes fourteen.  That’s why the Popes instituted Candlemas, a devotional celebration of the 40^th Day of Christmas, February 2, The Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple. The forty days are explained in the Gospel of St. Luke 2:22 and Lev 12:2-8.

Have you ever been to the Candlemas (Gromniczna) procession?  Some churches bless candles, but do they celebrate a procession? Yes, a procession, is what Popes for 1,300 years have instituted, encouraging Catholics to “keep their faith lights on” and witness to the world dark, lonesome, and depressed: “Jesus is the light of all nations!”  Candlemas was one of Blessed John Paul’s favorite feasts.  A true Roman holiday he rejuvenated with an evening Mass at which all the superiors of the male and female religious orders, processed into St. Peter’s Basilica with candles as huge as the ones blessed in you parish on Holy Saturday.  These masterpieces, for centuries, were all crafted at a certain shop near Pope Sixtus’ bridge.

I had the privilege to attend four such uplifting Candlemas Processions and Masses during my doctoral studies in the eternal city.  I cherish a beeswax candle, one from each year, all blessed by Bl. John Paul.

Don’t curse the darkness. Come out to Polonia’s Church in Kaisertown, St. Casimir’s, 10 am All-generational Mass this Sunday. The lights are still on, so are the Christmas Stable and trees. Glorious candles and golden vigils grace the high altar. Special greenery bedecked, beeswax candles (gromnice) with white ribbons will be prepared, yours for an offering. 

We will all process through the Church, candles lit, as award-winning composer, Dr. Ireneusz Łukaszewski and his Quo Vadis Choir leads us is the last kolędy of the 40^th and final day of this season of joy, light, and uplifting blessings. What a unique celebration of light and life!

The PolAm version of Candlemas, Gromniczna, names the blessed candle a “thunder candle” (gromnica), for its light wards off storms of all kinds. Held in Our Lady’s gentle hand the light protects a family from dangers inside and out. Do you have one?  Does your grandchildren’s home have one? Teach them to light a blessed flicker, rather than curse the darkness of the trials and challenges they experience. Don’t skimp on tradition and inspiration for you and your kids, come to Casimir’s.

My profound and life-long affection for February 2, Candlemas Day, started when Sister Principal asked me to sell candles at the church door from 6:30 am ‘till after the 8:30 am weekday Mass on that very day.  I considered one of the main privileges of my grade school “career”.

There were three of four sizes of 51% beeswax candles.  I covered the vintage spindle leg table, used only for special occasions, with a freshly pressed white linen, laced tablecloth.  Arranged the candles according to group, of course vested in a red festal cassock and equally laced surplice. Yes our home parish was into, what some called, “high church” festival. I just thought it was a great honor.  And, boy did I get some envious eyes as the entire school processed through the main doors for the last Mass of the holy day.

The senior women with Mrs Gadawski at the head of the “Toward the Stars” society, came in with their thick, dark amber, 100% beeswax candles, each with a tin foil crown to catch the drippings.  The only other time I saw these candles was for a funeral of a member of the society.  Then, ladies with lit candles would form a 18-20 pair honor guard in the center aisle, through which the priest led the casket.

On Candlemas these tradition bearers decked their waxen torches with white ribbons, sometimes fern   It seemed very much their feast day.  The Pastor, Fr. John, blessed, sprinkled and incensed their lights, transforming them into the legendary “thunder candles”. Mamma, who always attended this Mass, used to light this blessed candle during fierce thunderstorms, hence their name.  Sr. Juliette told us to take along a box of matches for the blessing, because, in her more intriguing manner, she told us “Blessed matches are the only kind that would work in the last days.” Boy, did we want to be the only ones with these supernatural magic matches.

greenery or small flowers.

In my freshman year at high school, my father succumbed to a nearly deathly combination of double pneumonia and pleurisy.  Late one night the phone rang, and soon my father’s closest friend came by to wiz my mother off to the hospital.  Just before closing the door, she said, “Light the thunder candle.”  I scampered around my parents’ bedroom on crutches, searching for the candle.  I had broken my leg on New Year’s Eve in my Christmas gift of ice skates. My mom had her hands full that year.

I knew lighting the candle blessed on Feb. 2, meant a prayer of some sort.  Little did I know my father was dying. Mamma came home long after sunrise, saying, “Daddy will be ok.”  Surviving the illness under the care of an elderly Austrian doctor, after three weeks he returned home, still quite weakened.  I knew I did the best a broken-legged, freshman, son could do: light the “thunder candle.”

SUNDAY, Feb. 2 at 10am The Church of St Casimir, Buffalo, NY, will bless and process with “Thunder Candles” to Polish Carols sung by the Quo Vadis Choir, led by their award winning composer and director, Dr. Ireneusz Łukaszewski.

FMI see http://www.seekandfind.com/find/st-casimir-oratory

Polish Bee Mythology

To be stung by a bee is more than good luck.  It’s a heavenly blessing.  Why? Ancient Slavs believed the bee carries heavenly energy to the earth in the form of fire, hence the sting. Poles never considered bees a menace.  The celestial aviators pollinated the fruit trees and flowers, majestically buzzed songs in the garden, produced wax for holy candles, and most of all were the stewards of sweetness, honey.

Honey was the primary sweetener before refined cane sugar arrived from the West.  It flavored drinks and love. How many a sweetheart refers to their beloved by this bee’s concentrated nectar?

Ancient hives were found and cared for in the hollows of old tree trunks. Tree climbing was a beekeeper’s second occupation. Symbiosis with nature: trees and the bee population was characteristic of the Polish practice of honey harvesting.  Therefore hives were revered and repopulated for years.

Polish honey is famous for it's natural, unprocessed quality, aromatic oils and abundant health enzymes. Festivals are held throughout the country and bee products are used for food, drink, candles, homeopathy, and natural cleaners.

To this day Poland still produces the most exquisite, world-class, mead, an ancient medieval drink, produced in northern countries where the fruit of the vine was scarce.   Polish mead has many grades (above) depending on the vintage and number of fruits employed in the fermentation.

Soup or Cordial?

More available and potent is the honey liquor, Krupnik. Listen to this linguistic fumble. A religious superior of a WNY women’s order, asked one of hers sisters traveling to Poland for some Krupnik. The sister took it as an order.  Upon returning the superior asked the traveler if she remembered. “Yes,” she answered obediently, “I’ll leave it by your door.” Returning to her room for bedtime, the superior found a rather large sack of barley. The next morning the young sister was a bit embarrassed that the superior wanted the liquid variety.

Regional variation of this word has confused some with its secondary meaning, barley or barley soup. Well, in Western New York, not only among religious women and priests, but for vintage believers, Krupnik is a digestive delicacy liquor.  Pictured here is the best quality available in stores: "Bak's" Of course, you'll find it next to the lighter brand at Key Liquors (plaza) on Clinton St, near Harlem.

Cousins at Grandparents' home for the

Christmas Eve Vigil supper.  1960s    

Photo SR Golanka.   

.

All ages join in...

“Now the young people, must sing!” Daddy invited the cousin-kids to a Christmas Eve carol.  “Even jingle bells.” He added.  The kids sang, knowing that he would prepare them some Johnnie Ryan (lemon-lime soda) mix with the honey liquor or wine.  Kids felt like grown ups.  They were treated as a part of every family gathering, because Dad involved them in everything.

That’s probably where my appreciation for culture, tradition, and family ritual came from and why I picked up on the Krupnik run. Having involved me in every possible home-improvement project from bricklaying to carpentry, plumbing and electrical, I learned that guys bonded at sausage smoking fests, wine making events, fishing, of course, then mushroom picking, building Christmas mangers and stars, and in my father’s case even Easter egg writing.

Krupnik soon became the secret drink I would smuggle back to the Seminary for a clandestine “Gody (Christmas) Season” caroling party with classmates. Often my Dad’s best friend, with whom he grew up on the same street in Poland, would add a forest berry liquor to the seminary care package.  “You must celebrate with your friends.” said my Dad as he passed over smoked meats, homemade condiments, and old style sour-dough rye.

 

My Dad, Stanislaw (right), friend Eddy (left) in traditional Polish Folk Garb. Photo by J Golanka.

Krupnik  “Poland’s winter drink par excellence"

My interest in this honey liquor, come directly from Dad, Stanisław, a Polish Soldier of the Carpathian Brigade, Soviet concentration camp escapee.  For Dad it was such a Christmas must that he purchased hand cut crystal glasses, carafe, and plate at Chopin’s birthplace in Poland and smuggled them into the US.

His signature drink was only served in these 40-or-so shot glasses and then, not until the Christmas Eve Vigil Supper, just before singing carols, “to lubricate the vocal cords.” From after Midnight Mass through January, first choir members, then friends and family came over seeking out his annual brew. First of all, they entered the home singing a Polish carol or two. Then Dad brought out the prized, and long awaited annual vintage.

Glasses were raised high above every brow, toward the light to examine the crystalline, amber hue. Comments, discussion, arose before the degustation as the aromatic honey drink was raised nose-ward.  Praise and appreciation with gratitude to the host were the focus of the moment.  Then the first sips, with “Mmm, Yesss. You can’t find this anywhere else but here! Stasiu, a wondrous job, yet again! Each year it’s better!”  Some tried to remember how last year’s batch compares to this exquisite cordial which as always slowly, warmed their throats, journeying downwards thawing each hearty chest, as a medicament, and filling the room with delightful sighs.

As some scholars say, all alcoholic drinks are a cultural experience.

Polish Honey Liquor Tasting at Polish Villa II 1085 Harlem Rd, Cheektowaga, NY, Saturday January 25, 2014, 11am-4pm.  Fr Krysa's Dad's recipe, Polish Buffet & more...

 www.polishvillaparttwo.com  

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