Mystical Polish folklore.
Mystical Polish folklore.
photos by Anna Maria Krycia / 2022 / Poland
first photo; family archive
A ritual is not supposed to be logical, it is supposed to make sense.
— Grzegorz Bral
It took me many years to realize that Polish ritual traditions and the songs associated with them are part of a deeper story, a part of my heritage, a certain element of mysticism.
Music has always carried a huge emotional charge. For me, Polish ritual songs were a rather late discovery. They were associated with various types of ceremonies and were intended to guide people through the different stages of the ritual. This stemmed from magical thinking, from conjuring reality so that the person being sung about would be safe and protected.
I discovered this mystical aspect of my own culture quite late. For a long time, I considered the traditions of other cultures still living close to nature and the legacy of their ancestors, such as the Shipibo tribe singing icaros, to be the only ones carrying true spiritual wisdom, but also capable of evoking inner catharsis, transformation, deep emotion, blessing or healing.
My ancestors also left us something behind.
I attempted to tell a story about the profound and spiritual aspects of folk music.
I travelled around Lower Silesia and the Lublin region, following in the footsteps of Oskar Kolberg, a 19th-century ethnographer, collecting recordings of songs, customs and rituals from these regions.
Ms Janina Pydo, the last singer in the Roztocze region, told me about the rituals associated with sending the soul to the afterlife. During the so-called Empty Night, which was a night of vigil over the dying or deceased, people prayed through singing.
There is something so moving about these songs that I felt compelled to record them so that they would not be forgotten.
Listen to Polish ritual songs. There is gold there.