Odpust parafialny jako instytucja pamięci społecznej
Parish festival as a social memory institution

Author(s): Marek Dziewierski
Subject(s): Sociology of Culture
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: parish festival; Greek Catholics; “Vistula” operation; celebration; cultural landscape;memorial site;
Summary/Abstract: Chrzanowo is a small village located in South-Eastern part of Masuria, nearly 6 kilometres from Ełk. It has around 120 inhabitants; Greek Catholic Ukrainians constitute one-third of them. I took up the subject of indulgences ceremony there. Celebrating is a permanent and important element of every culture and of social life; I was interested in the importance of this symbolic action in society for the reconstruction of national identity. In my work I tried to describe this place while indicating: fundamental deficiencies in homeliness, religiousness based on Eastern canon of faith, and custom of national language in public space. I emphasized what was essential and hard to achieve in the first stage of living in exile. This parish festival has many contexts and meanings far beyond the local community. Chrzanowo, seen through the prism of the festival, is an important national scene: the place of patriotic staging; the symbol of religiosity and attachment to tradition; the place to commemorate the deportation victims. It is also an example of the creation of a new cultural landscape of Masuria.

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