Polish folklore beliefs about the sky, stars and moon
again, as I am delving deeper into old stories from Polish folklore, I find countless incredible and eerie beliefs - those that survived centuries, told by greatgrandmas to their grandchildren.
given that the last post was about death omens, this time it’ll be something a bit more uplifting. and I say a bit because we’re Slavic, and at the end of the day most things are about death or bad luck. or, well, weather.
sky:
- the following day will have good weather if: the sky has a golden hue after the sun sets; the sky is cloudless during the evening; the horizon is clear and bright during sunset
- pale sky and sickly yellow sunset foretell the coming of bad weather
- if during Christmas eve the night sky was full of clouds, cows would give a lot of milk in the upcoming year; if it was full of stars, hen would lay a lot of eggs
stars:
- night sky with a lot of clear stars foretells a good weather
- if stars can be seen even during sunrise, the day will have good weather
- barely visible or blinking stars foretell rain and bad weather
- stars are closely tied to human life - or rather the human life is tied to them - when a person is born, they are born under a star and this star is “theirs”
- you can be born under a “light star” or a “dark star” - the first means a good and lucky life, the second means struggle and bad luck in life
- people born under a “dark star” are often considered to be moody, difficult to deal with, or even dangerous (typ spod ciemnej gwiazdy)
- you should never point your finger at the stars because you can “point at your own” and that might cause you to be ill or even die; the star might fall down and cause your or someone’s death too;
- this belief is closely tied to the one that says a falling stars means someone just died - “the soul goes to heaven so the star falls to earth” and “the star is falling, say a prayer because someone died” (“jak spadła gwiazda to dusza poszła do nieba, a gwiazda z nieba” i “zmawiaj pacierz bo ktoś umarł i gwiazda spada”)
- some believe a falling star means a death of a child that hasn’t been baptised - in this case you’re supposed to say “if it’s a boy, let him be John, if a girl, let her be Anne” allowing the child’s soul to pass into heaven (“jak pan to niech będzie Jan, jak panna to niech będzie Anna”)
- stars were often called “little lights” and “little candles” and were on the sky to guide people - both in the literal sense and in life
moon:
- a very bright moon with a glowing rim foretells good weather the next day
- a red moon means bad weather the next day, especially during its rise or setting
- lunar eclipse was always seen as a bad omen: of illness or death, bad crops, death of cattle - some people would cover the wells “so the eclipse doesn’t poison the water”
- new moon seen through the trees or the roof foretells a sad month
- there is a widespread tradition of welcoming and greeting the new moon and wishing it all the best while asking for its blessing (there are basically countless versions of these greetings, examples include: “welcome, Prince in a new crown, the crown to you and good fortune to us” or “New moon, bring health so me, so my head and teeth won’t hurt” - toothache and headache appear in most of those greetings)
- full moon was an especially feared time, as most people believed the moonlight was harmful - newborn babies must not be out in the moonlight or they might get “hit/paralysed by the moon” and the window must be covered or else the baby will become a chronicsleepwalker
- moonlight could also: blind the children (or cause worsening of sight); take away their ability to talk or cause a lisp; cause a headache or endless crying; or even cause a mental disability
- fullmoon poses the greatest threat of possession by malicious forces or being kidnapped by an evil creature or spirit
- fullmoon causes insomnia - to battle this, one should put a glass of water or a little mirror on the windowsill - water is not only cleansing, but also creates a reflection and reflects the moonlight (some, as my great aunt, say that the moon becomes busy with looking at itself rather than entering the eyes and causing insomnia)
[main sources, other than personal research and conversations with people - especially older - in villages and cities of Silesia and Lesser Poland: A. Lebeda, Komentarze do Polskiego Atlasu Etnograficznego: Wiedza i Wierzenia Ludowe, 2002; B. Błaszczyńska, Wieści pogodowe według meteorologii ludowej, 2010]
The traditional clothing of Muslims, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Folk costumes of Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs of the region.
I haven’t really seen any vocab lists for Serbian so far, so I decided to make some of my own! This list wil probably also apply for Bosnian, Croatian and Montenegrian, but as my professor is a Serb and we’re learning Ekavian in class, I’ll mark it as Serbian. Please correct me if there are any mistakes!
In Polish, first we divide participles into two groups: adjectival and adverbial.Then, there are sub-groups: according to aspect – imperfective and perfective, and action – active or passive.
Adjectival
a mix of a verb and an adjective. Inflects like an adjective and is used like one: to describe a subject or an object in a sentence.
active — use it to describe the “doer” of an action in the present. Use only imperfective forms of verbs and add endings -ący/-ąca/-ące according to the gender of the doer.
Kobiety robiące pranie. - The women doing laundry.
“robiące” is our active adjectival participle here. Created from the imperfective verb “robić” (to do), we added an ending -ące — because the doer of the action is feminine and plural (kobiety - women).
Kobiety robiące pranie śpiewały piosenkę. - The women (that were) doing laundry, were singing a song.
It does not indicate when they sang the song (we don’t know if it happened before, during, or after laundry) — the participle here is used to describe the women, not the action.
Here’s how you inflect them by case:
passive — use it to describe the object of an action in the past. Use only transitive verbs and add endings -ny/-ony/-ty (or their counterparts according to the gender of the object).
“zrobiony” from “zrobić” which is a transitive verb (means it requires an object — you do/make something, in this case the something is dinner). So the participle here describes the object (dinner), the subject is unknown (we don’t know who made dinner).
Lalki są uszyte i gotowe do pomalowania. - The dolls are sewed and ready to be painted.
Here’s how you inflect them by case:
The difference between active and passive adjectival participles is mainly in the tense. If something is e.g. being made at the time of speaking, you use the active one. If something was made earlier, use the passive one.
Even though these two types are adjectival participles and they act a lot like adjectives, unlike adjectives you can’t compare the participles (something can’t be “more made” than something else).
Adverbial
doesn’t inflect. Unlike adjectival participles, it doesn’t describe the subject in a sentence, but rather the action itself.
imperfect — informs about an action that takes place at the same time as the verb. Use only imperfective forms of verbs and add -ąc as an ending.
Dzieci oglądając telewizję, jadły obiad. - Kids while watching tv, were eating dinner.
“oglądając” is our imperfect adverbial participle here. Notice how it doesn’t inflect. The verb is “jadły” (imperfective: jeść - to eat) and it takes place at the same time: they watched the tv and ate at the same moment.
Mężczyźni rozmawiając o pracy, narzekali na szefa. - The men while talking about their jobs, complained about their boss.
“rozmawiając” is our imperfect adverbial participle. Notice how it doesn’t inflect. “narzekali” is our verb (imperfective: narzekać - to complain) and it takes place at the same time as talking.
Kobiety robiąc pranie, śpiewały piosenkę. - The women while doing laundry, were singing a song.
Unlike the example I used to explain the active adjectival participle, here the participle indicated not who sang the song, but rather when. Now we know the singing happened while they were doing laundry, at the same time.
You can only use this participle if the same person performed both actions (both the verb and the action described by the participle):
CORRECT: Agnieszka słuchała radia, gotując. - Agnieszka listened to the radio while cooking.
It was Agnieszka who did both the cooking and the listening.
INCORRECT: Idąc to pracy, miał miejsce wypadek. - While going to work, there was an accident.
It’s incorrect because we don’t know who performed the action. The context suggests it was the accident that was going to work. The correct version of this sentence would be “Gdy szłam do pracy, miał miejsce wypadek.” — without any participle.
perfect — informs about an action that happened before the verb. Use only perfective forms of verbs and add -łszy/-wszy as an ending.
-łszy — after a consonant
-wszy — after a vowel
Zosia, usłyszawszy od mamy straszną historię, uciekła z domu. - Zosia, having heard a scary story from her mom, ran away from home.
“usłyszawszy” is our perfect adverbial participle, “uciekła” is the verb. First she heard the story, then she ran away.
Matylda, poszedłszy do szkoły, zorientowała się, że zapomniała butów. - Matylda, having gone to school, realized she’d forgotten her shoes.
first she went to school, then she realized she didn’t have shoes on. Therefore “poszedłszy”, as our prior action, is a participle. Notice how the participle doesn’t inflect under any condition.
You can only use the participle if the same person performed both actions (both the verb and the action described by the participle):
CORRECT: Agnieszka ugotowawszy obiad, słuchała radia. - Agnieszka having cooked dinner, listened to the radio.
It was Agnieszka who did both the cooking and the listening.
INCORRECT: Doszedłszy do pracy, kawa już na mnie czekała. - Having arrived at work, coffee was already waiting for me.
It’s incorrect because it indicated that coffee was the one who arrived at work.
The perfect adverbial participle is used only in formal writing.
Important things to remember
Adjectival participles inflect like normal adjectives (gender, number, case) but unlike normal adjectives, they don’t compare.
Adverbial participles don’t ever inflect.
Adjectival participles are used to indicate either a subject or an object in a sentence, while adverbial participles focus on the action itself.
Use adverbial participles only when the performer of both the action described by the participle and the verb is the same person.
The perfect adverbial participle is used only in formal writing.
Grammar and punctuation
Always separate two parts of a sentence that use any verbal form with a comma.
Mężczyźni rozmawiając o pracy, narzekali na szefa. - “rozmawiając” and “narzekali” are both words that indicate an action, therefore they need to be separated with a comma.
Adjectival participles and negation (nie-) form one word.
Kobiety robiące pranie. Kobiety nierobiące prania.
Obiad jest zrobiony. Obiad jest niezrobiony.
Adverbial participles and negation (nie-) are separate words.
Dzieci oglądając telewizję, jadły obiad. Dzieci nie oglądając telewizji, jadły obiad.
Zosia usłyszawszy od mamy straszną historię, uciekła z domu. - Zosia nie usłyszawszy od mamy strasznej historii, uciekła z domu.
“The paintings by [Ukrainian] artist Nina Marchenko are created by her soul. A lot of them are dedicated to the tragic pages of our history: Holodomor of 1932-1933 and World War II…Talking about Holodomor Nina closes her eyes, her voice is sad. Answering my question why she touched this horrible subject, what she was feeling, the artist started telling how much pain it was accumulated in her soul, how much she wanted (and it was so hard!) to splash it out onto the canvas.”
“The Holodomor (Ukrainian: Голодомо́р, “Extermination by hunger” or “Hunger-extermination”; derived from морити голодом, “to kill by starvation”), also known as the Terror-Famine and Famine-Genocide in Ukraine, and—before the widespread use of the term “Holodomor,” as well as currently still—referred to also as the Great Famine, and The Ukrainian Genocide of 1932–33 was a man-made famine in Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 that killed an estimated 2.5–7.5 million Ukrainians, with millions more counted in demographic estimates. It was part of the wider disaster, the Soviet famine of 1932–33, which affected the major grain-producing areas of the country. During the Holodomor millions of inhabitants of Ukraine, the majority of whom were ethnic Ukrainians, died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of Ukraine. Since 2006, the Holodomor has been recognized by the independent Ukraine and 24 other countries as a genocide of the Ukrainian people carried out by the Soviet Union.”
There are three genders of nouns in Czech and each of them has 4 patterns of declension (masculine gender has a few more, but they’re not very common).
♂ Masculine
♀ Feminine
☺Neutral
Now, what are those “1.p. (some weird word)” things?
Those arecases, we have seven of them and I’m going to show you how to know which one is which. (1.p. stands for první pád - first case)
The example word is želva (=turtle) which is declined using the feminine pattern “žena”.
In czech schools we are taught “case questions” - you can see one in the first column next to the nominative case. Second case question would be “Without whom/what?” and so on. I have simplified them for you and put only the guide prepositions there.
Once you get used to the thought that czech prepositions are tied to a case, it’s actually not so hard.
If you know the latin cases, them you’re good to go, because that’s where ours come from, except we have one more (the seventh) because we’re extra.
libertycordova Grateful for a decade of belly laughs with this one through this wild journey we call life. Celebrating you today by dancing at random in public. Love love love you my sweet Sterr, make a wish! 💫
