CULTURAL ID

ENTITY OF

POLAND

RACIBOROWICE near Krakow

WARSAW the capital

POLISH VISUAL ART

Jan Matejko „ Stańczyk”

Stanisław Wyspiański„Sleeping Staś”

Jacek Malczewki „Spring”Magdalena Abakanowicz

„Crowd”

Jerzy Nowosielski „Half-act black”

Władysław Hasior „Golgotha III”

POLISH LITERATURE

Jan KochanowkiMikołaj Rej

Among the writers whose works are most frequently translated and published outwith the Polish borders are: Stanisław Lem (36 languages), Jerzy Andrzejewski (30), Wisława Szymborska (22), Tadeusz Różewicz (20), Marek Hłasko (19), Ryszard Kapuściński (17), Czesław Miłosz (15), Sławomir Mrożek (14), Karol Wojtyła - Pope John Paul II - (12), Zbigniew Herbert (11)

Juliusz SłowackiAdam MickiewiczZygmunt Krasiński

NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS IN LITERATURE

Henryk Sienkiewicz

Władysław Reymont

Czesław Miłosz

Wisława Szymborska

Four times, Polish authors have received the Nobel Prize for Literature: Henryk Sienkiewicz (1905) for his extraordinary achievements in the field of epic prose and a "rare genius who concentrates in himself the spirit of the nation"; Władysław Reymont (1924) for the astonishing national epic, the novel The Peasants, Czesław Miłosz (1980) for his whole oeuvre and finally Wisława Szymborska for her poetry (1996)

POLISH SCIENTISTS

Mikołaj Kopernik an astronomer, famous for

the heliocentrism

Maria Skłodowska – Curie a physicist and chemist , the first

woman to win the Nobel Prize and the only woman to win in two fields,

the only person to win in multiple sciences

POLISH COMPOSERS

Fryderyk ChopinStanisław Moniuszko Ignacy Paderewski

Witold Lutosławski Henryk Mikołaj Górecki Krzysztof Penderecki

POLISH SPORTSPEOPLE

Justyna KowalczykAdam Małysz

Adrian Zieliński

Robert Kubica

Agnieszka RadwańskaTomasz Majewski

POLISH CUISINE

Yummy….

ETHNIC GROUPS IN POLA

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MAIN ETHNIC AND NATIONAL MINORITIES

Silesians - 173 153 people Lemkos - 5 800 people

Germans - 152 897 people Lithuanians - 5 646 people

Belarusians - 48 737 people Kashubians - 5 042 people

Ukrainians - 30 957 people Highlanders - not specified

Jews - about 120 000 people Slovaks - 2 031 people

Roma - 12 555 people Russians - 6 103 people

SILESIANS

Ethnic minority who lives in

the region of Silesia,

has its own dialect known as

Silesia dialect or language.

As a result of World War II, Silesians

lost continuity of their history,

due to mass displacement

and migration.

People considered to be the

„background" have a huge responsibility

and diligence.

SILESIAN EMBROIDERY AND TRADITIONAL OUTFIT

GERMANS

German nationality is a group

living mainly in the south-west part

Poland. During the Nazi occupation

of Poland during World War II,

Germans from other areas of Eastern

Europe were settled in the pre-war

territory of Poland by the Nazis, who

at the same time expelled, enslaved and killed

Poles and Jews. Now there are several bilingual communities in Poland.

ROMA (ROMANI PEOPLE)

The Romani are much less numerous and

less controversial in Poland than in other

European countries where major sociopolitical

issues revolve around them.

Nevertheless, negative stereotypes remain strong

in Polish society. Polska Roma are the largest

and one of the oldest ethnolinguistic sub group of

Romani people living in Poland. Currently, Polska Roma live mostly in

southeastern Poland, in the area around Nowy Sącz, in Podhale and Spisz.

ROMANI MUSICIANS TRADITIONAL OUTFIT

KASHUBIANS

Kashubians are a West Slavic ethnic group in Pomerelia

north-central Poland. They speak Kashubian, classified

either as a language or a Polish dialect.

A large part of Kashubian managed

to preserve their culture and language.

In 2005, Kashubian was for the first time made

an official subject on the Polish matura exam

(roughly equivalent to the English A-Level).

KASHUBIAN NOTES TRADITONAL OUTFIT

JEWS

The Jewish community, once numbering

3,474,000, was almost entirely wiped out,

due to the Holocaust. Jews who survived

emigrated to Israel. If not for the Holocaust,

the Jewish people would probably constitute

Poland's largest minority group. Now, its

representatives live mainly in large cities like

Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow and Lublin.

The oldest and most valuable

synagogue is located in Krakow.

PREPARATION FOR PASSOVER OUTFIT

LEMKOS

The population of the Beskid area

extending from Poprad the Dukla Pass.

They are one of the ethnic groups inhabiting

the Carpathian Mountains. Their language

has been variously described as a Lemko

language or a dialect of the Ukrainian language.

An important aspect of Lemko culture is their

deep commitment to Eastern Christianity.

LEMKO PRODUCTS OUTFIT

LITHUANIANS

Primarily living in the north-eastern

Polish areas, mainly in Suwalki.

Modern Lithuanian minority in Poland

is composed of 5,639 people

according to the Polish census of 2002.

Lithuanian organizations are involved in

organizing cultural life of the minority. There are also Lithuanian-language

programmes on local Bialystok Radio and Television.

Lithuanian language is used in Gmina Puńsk as a second language since 2006.

SLOVAKS

Community of Slovaks inhabits two small

frontier regions in the Spisz and Orawa

(south of Poland, near Polish-Slovak border).

Larger groups of Slovaks are

in Krakow and Silesia region.

HIGHLANDERS (THE GORALS)

It is a community with its own,

rich in tradition culture, and speaking

the regional dialect in everyday communication.

They are additionally characterized by a specific

outfit. They live in the region of Podhale of the

Tatra Mountains and parts of the Beskids

Highlanders mainly occupied and still occupy

with sheep grazing and farming in the mountains.

They are famous for many kinds of cheese, like żętyca,

oscypki (raw and smoked) or bundz.

They have a sense of humor, a passion for games and songs,

and are famous for their unique hospitality and tenacity.

HIGHLAND DANCING OUTFIT

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of theinformation contained therein.