This Friday, 4 December 2020, the Student Affairs Office and the Natolin Restaurant organised a nice celebration of Barbórka. This Polish feast is primarily observed in Śląsk (Silesia), a southern, coal-rich region in the south of Poland, which also was one of the first semester study trips destinations.
The feast began as a religious one - marking the day of St. Barbara, patron saint of coal miners - but soon took on a more secular, folk character. In recent years, Śląsk's coal mines have begun to close and employment has started to shift to other industry. Still, the region keeps to and remembers many of its mining-related rituals, aesthetics, and traditions - Barbórka included.
Barbórka is celebrated in many ways, including through meetings and competitions in beer halls, singing and music, initiation ceremonies for new coal miners, and traditional food!
Here at Natolin, we want to also take some time to share some of Poland's rituals and traditions with students. Therefore, the Restaurant offered a traditional Silesian menu and projected footage of this first semester's study trip to Silesia!