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April 2007 Issue
Family embraces heritage with Holy
Saturday celebration
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On Holy Saturday,
Dennis and Kathleen Wojtowicz, along with their three
children, will bring a basket of food they plan to eat
on Easter Sunday to Sacred Heart of Jesus in Grand Rapids
to be blessed. Like the Wojtowicz family, Poles throughout
the world will make similar visits to their parish churches
to preserve and express the cultural tradition of swienconka
(sh-vee-ensoon-kah), or blessed foods. |
Traditional Easter foods – eggs, sausage,
ham, bread, butter, horseradish, etc. – are brought to
churches for the ritual, where a priest prays over the baskets
and sprinkles them with holy water.
Swienconka and other Catholic folk traditions
help to preserve and express the cultural identities of ethnic
groups. “My grandparents were from Poland and they brought
the family tradition of observing the blessing of the food
from the old country,” said Kathleen, whose mother,
Maureen Makarewicz, passed on the tradition to her. “I
think what makes the tradition so important is that you can
pass on a part of your faith and heritage to your children.
Over time, it is so easy to become detached from our original
culture; it’s good that we can continue to embrace these
traditions.”
Families who carry on the tradition of swienconka
also understand that it is more than a celebration of one’s
ethnic heritage. The ceremony is probably best described as
an event in which sacred and secular symbols and rituals enhance
each other’s meaning, said Father Edward A. Hankiewicz,
pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus, who has presided over the
blessing there for a number of years.
“Swienconka integrates the spiritual
life of Christ with the spiritual life of the family,”
Father Hankiewicz said. “The church is part of the nuclear
family. And the blessing, like other rituals, extends far
beyond the church walls into the family and it becomes a sacred
moment within the family.”
That link, between church and family, is what
makes swienconka important to her family, Kathleen said.
“It’s another connection with
our faith,” she said. “As we experience the blessing
and its meaning, it helps to emphasize the faith in our own
home.”
Although some blessing prayers address the
basket generally, the prayers that Father Hankiewicz delivers
specifically address the various foods in the basket, with
special prayers for the meats, eggs, cakes and breads. During
the blessing, the priest generally sprinkles the individual
baskets with holy water. More traditional Polish churches
use a straw brush for dispersing the water, while others use
the more modern metal aspergillum.
In some parishes, the baskets are lined up
on long tables; in others, parishioners process to the front
of the altar carrying their baskets, as if in a Communion
procession. The basket, which is a central part of the tradition,
is traditionally lined with a white linen or lace napkin and
decorated with sprigs of boxwood, the typical Easter evergreen.
Poles take special pride in preparing a decorative and tasteful
basket with crisp linens, occasionally embroidered for the
occasion, and just enough boxwood and ribbon woven through
the handle. Observing the beautiful foods and creations of
other parishioners is one of the special joys of the event,
Makarewicz said.
“I remember how people would bring in
these great big baskets, and they were always decorated so
beautifully,” she said. “There were times that
families would have visitors from Poland, and they would bring
baskets with fine embroidery and decorated with flowers and
greenery.”
While they continue to embrace the tradition,
the Wojtowicz family said they are hopeful that future generations
will do the same to help preserve the church’s link
to cultural traditions.“It is very important for us,
our children and their children to make sure that we continue
to observe the blessing and understand that it is an important
part of our faith and ethnic heritage,”
Dennis said.
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