Palm Sunday...

I seem to remember that last year I didn't share any of the Polish Easter traditions, probably because it was so cold and icy, spring rituals were unthinkable. I made a mental note to talk a bit about Easter this year, and by some miraculous twist of memory, I remembered in time to share a few things.

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, Polish palms are like nothing I ever saw before. The are made of wheat stalks, sometimes dyed in bright colors, and sometimes woven together with dry flowers. You can find palms only a few inches long, or several feet long. Each year, a Catholic family carries a palm to church on Palm Sunday (we saw lots of folks walking around with them last week), and it is blessed by a priest. The palm is then kept in the home for the next year, and is superstitiously supposed (by some folks) to be a talisman for luck and health.


Of course, along with this general tradition, there always people who ambitiously make taller and taller palms every year, like this one, that takes a good number of folks to raise upright.



Of course, they don't bear much resemblance to the palm leaves that come from real palm trees, or the palm leaves that were strewn in Jesus' path as he entered Jerusalem for the Passover, hailed as the King. But authenticity isn't always possible. There are no palms in Poland, but there has always been a lot of wheat.

Wieliczka

Suppose you were a bride--a Hungarian princess bride named Kinga, to be explicit--about to be married to a Polish king. You want to present your bridegroom with a valuable gift, and so you tell your father you want to give your new husband a salt mine. He tells you to drop your ring into the nearest salt-pit, and so you do. When you arrive in Poland, a trimphant bride, you direct a few servants to begin digging, which they do. They find your ring, encased in salt, and that marks the discovery of one of the oldest salt mines in the world, still in operation today.

That's the legend, anyway. Who can really remember what happened in the 13th century?

The salt mines in Wieliczka (just outside Krakow) are extensive. There are kilometers and kilometers of underground passages, underground salt lakes, winding staircases, vast eerie chambers, and amazing scuptures carved from rock salt. The salty air is supposed to be healthy, so a spa is operated on the premises, and tens of thousands of tourists visit the mines every year. They are probably more lucrative than the salt.

If you wonder why a salt mine would be such a valuable thing in the first place, consider the time of its inception. Salt was highly prized for its preservative power, and very valuable. The Polish kings received much of their wealth from these vast, productive mines. It could not have been pleasant to work in them, and part of the interest of the tour is to observe the evolving methods of mining the salt. At one point, they even had horses living underground to work in the mines!

Artists carved salt statues, bas-relief salt pictures, and made salt chapels. One enormous chamber has been fashioned into an underground cathedral. It looks as if it were paved with marble, but the floor is carved from the salt. The crystal chandeliers are made from salt crystals. There really isn't anything in this mine that isn't salt, and if you lick the walls, they will taste salty. (At least, that's what the tour guides tell you. And my kids.)

I realize that most of my readers will never get to visit this unique place, but if you like, take a virtual tour. Here's a short slide show featuring statues of "the finding of Kinga's ring" and one of the salt chandeliers. Here's a couple of film clips that will show you part of what the tour is like, including the small passages and the huge cathedral. (Click on the picture links at the bottom of the page.) You'll also hear spoken Polish.

If you visit Krakow, this is a must-see place, unless you are physically unable to manage the tour, which is a bit taxing. You begin by walking down about 430 steps, but you descend many more as the tour continues, and walk about 3 kilometers through the passages. Thankfully, they have an elevator (albeit an old mining elevator, unlighted, so you ride up in the dark) to take you back to the surface.

Take a look and tell me what you think! I've been there several times, but not recently.

(Oh, and P.S.--please say "Vyeh-LEECH-kah")

Money, money

You all probably know, although I didn't until a few days ago, that the US is going to begin issuing new $1 coins, featuring each president in chronological order. As usual, there's always a discussion about whether anyone will actually use the new coins, or only collect them (which is partially the point, isn't it, since each one is only issued for a few months?).

I think the only way to make Americans use $1 coins is to give them no choice. You'd have to get rid of the paper dollar. Here in Poland, our smallest monetary note is 10 Polish złoty. (Please excuse me--I am constitutionally unable to write or speak "zlotys.") Since hundreds of products cost far less than 10 złoty, we obviously have smaller denominations, but they are all coins. There are nine in all, which makes the standard US four coins seem pretty meager. A $1 coin would only bring the total to five!

We have coins in the amount of 1, 2 and 5 złoty, and 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 groszy. It does make for a lot of change. It seems to be standard practice for stores to run out of change, because when you pay cash (and I usually do), they always, always ask for exact change if you can possibly give it to them.

The last state quarter I saw was California, and I don't expect to be seeing any of these $1 coins anytime in the near future. I wonder if they'll still be circulating the next time I'm in the states, or if they will all have been tucked into collector's albums? The US mint has come up with a real money maker, I think. It must be working with the quarters, so why not do it with nickels (I saw those Lewis and Clark nickels!) and dollars?

By the way, my kids have no trouble keeping all those Polish coins straight, but they are as likely as not to ask, "How much is a quarter worth?"