The Day of the Moldovans and the Krakowiaks / main concert

Kamil Cyganik takes us on a journey through the penultimate national day of the 32nd FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS, where the Krakowiak-style caps with peacock feathers, the Moldovan dances and children’s songs are woven into one lively story.

Although I was born and raised in the centre of Kraków, I have been a bush [a person who has arrived and put down roots] in a village near Kraków for a decade. I see the peacock feathers on the distinctive caps, as well as the red and white trousers during holidays and celebrations, which is why my Kraków heart beats faster on this Thursday evening as I wait for the children from Siedlec to show up.

But first, announced by a child’s voice, Auntie Hania and Uncle Patryk proclaim that Thursday is respect day.

And that is meet and right, because respect is one of the foundations of this Festival. Respect for one’s own traditions, one’s own traditional costume, one’s own little motherland, but also respect for the different, for the other. Because respect doesn’t so much say something about the respected as it does about the respecter.

Auntie Hanka was taught that respect is for someone close to you: grandparents, parents, but out of respect you also need to give up your seat, and help the elderly. And not to forget that a smile, or a good word are proof of respect.

Patryk recalls that in the past children would have to kiss their dad’s or mum’s hand to show respect.

Distinguished guests in the audience: Marek Bzdek, the head of the Bochnia Commune; Wioletta Nawojowska, a deputy director of the Centre for Culture, Reading and Sport in Bochnia; Mariola Pilch, a Bochnia Commune councillor, a native of Siedlec; Beata Kaszewska, the leader of the village of Siedlec. Headed by Agata Dziurdzia, the Country Housewives’ Association representing the village of Siedlec is responsible for the stand in front of the amphitheatre.

Jan Łosakiewicz, the President of the Polish Section of the CIOFF, has joined our Festival.


A fair. What is that? Hanka Rybka explains patiently that there have always been fairs in Nowy Targ on Thursday. And it was the place where you could buy everything, ranging from buttons to a horse.

And how was it after the fair in Siedlec? Today MALI SIEDLECANIE will show it to us.

“Work and work!”, complains a group of girls in everyday dresses, but you can leave the geese for a while and sing. A song about work, or actually about a rebellion, as they won’t graze cattle, because they haven’t been given an afternoon snack.

And the guys have nothing to do but scare the girls?

They do have something to do. The can play! It’s just that the girls don't want to play the little fox, they prefer to play blind man's buff. But first a counting-out rhyme to decide who will be the first one to be blindfolded with a handkerchief. It takes a certain dose of honesty to answer the question “can you see anything?” truthfully. Blind man, keep spinning. Where is he spinning? Of course on a barrel... And in the barrel, cabbage and peas.

A musical band is returning from a fair in Bochnia. There, the girls got new strings for their fiddles, and the button-accordion player got even more - a new instrument.

The children sing about a cow, its horns, legs and tail. Thus, they give time for the violinist, bassist and the button-accordion player to ‘anchor themselves’ at the microphones.

Our folk are coming! Our folk are beautifully dressed girls who did not forget about the younger, hard-working children, and so brought them toys from the fair. Hobby horses, a wooden toy car, little hens pecking at grain effectively engage the attention of the younger ones, so the older ones - and now there are some boys too - can have a dance. A sidestep, a turn and, finally, the obligatory bang against stage - one, one, one! Such a characteristic accent. The setting encompasses three spaces: on the side two groups of the younger ones pore over the toys from the fair; in the middle the older ones are dancing. The latter ones eventually invite the youngest to sing about the ways in which you can recognise a Siedlec boy by his voice, and Siedlec girls by their outfits. All are dancing. Taking one another by the arm, and a chain dance! And that repetitive downbeat: one, one, one! Boys will be boys, so they can’t leave the stage just like that- there must be some tug-of-war at the end. For this is a story about the times when a fair was indeed an important thing, but even a simple rope could serve as a tool of good fun. A multi-purpose tool.

And when I look at the boys’ caps, I think of how important this symbol is to the Kraków identity, so important that a golden horn could be lost only to retrieve such a cap when it falls down in a gallop. And when I look at the girls’ bodices, I think that under the bodice tuck sewn in a bit too tightly there is a heart beating. To the Polish rhythm.
 

Hanka plays an ocarina, Patryk plays a clay bird whistle. And then there was the traditional question sung to the siskin whether he saw how respect was created. He saw how. And how? What do you mean how? Like this! Behold!
 

The Moldovan ensemble OPINCUȚA brings an immense amount of white to the stage. In fact, it is only the dark, narrow skirts worn by the girls, the shoes, belts and hats worn by the boys break up this whiteness...

I look hard, check the big screen and... no! I was not mistaken! The boys have attached to their black hats... peacock feathers. Smaller ones than our Krakowiaks, but they are undoubtedly peacock feathers! Coincidence? Or perhaps a sign that we have much more in common in this best of worlds than we are ready to admit. This Festival teaches that.

It also teaches that human beings develop and there is a time for every generation, or rather: every generation has its time. Therefore, now a younger group is performing on stage. One significant change in costume: the boys have not black, but light straw hats. And no peacock feathers.

The Moldovan children dance both in circles and in pairs, alone, in fours. While singing. Now they are facing the audience, dancing faster and faster. Applause. One of the boys stamps his foot and everyone takes a bow. Another stamp and everyone leaves the stage. All is done cleanly, as earlier in the dance. And the older group again.


We return to the Kraków district to see how to dance krakowiak, oberek and poleczka. The Krakowiaks give the stage over to the Moldovans, leaving with a distinctive sidestep, while the lads point the direction of the dance with their hands raised proudly in the Kraków-style.
 
OPINCUȚA presents its own unusual dynamic. First the whole ensemble gives a strong performance, in rhythm. They leave the stage, and a mini-recital is given first by a member of the band playing the panpipes, and then by a violinist. Alone on stage, with great concentration, first solo before giving the accordionist the signal, and so the next piece is played already with the gentle sounds of the aerophone. They end with a powerful dance, with peacock feathers flying above...