Polish Culture

Modern day Poland (Polska) is a parliamentary representative democratic republic. She has a population of approximately 38.5 million people, 96.7% of which consider themselves ethnically Polish. Minorities include: Armenians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Czechs, Slovaks, Kashubians, Russians, Romani, Silesians, Ukrainians, Greeks, and Jews. In addition, Poland has over 50 (Polish) cultural ethnicities including Kurpie in the Mazovian region from where the Zarnochs and Gwaras come. The national language is Polish (spoken in 97.8% of homes as a first language). Polish people are called "Poles" in English (the term "Polack" is considered derogatory in almost every country), in Polish they are called Polak (masc. singular), Polka (fem. singular), Polki (fem. plural), or Polacy (plural). The word Poland comes from one of the Western Slavic tribes who settled in the area called the Polans (Polanie), and their name is etymologically related to the Indo-European word for "field." See Coat of Arms & Flag for information about some of Poland's national symbols. Although Poland became part of the EU in 2004, their currency is not the Euro, but the złoty (right now the current exchange rate is approximately 1 Euro = 4.14 PLN).

Warsaw (Warszawa) is the capital, and it is the largest city in Poland with a population of approximately 1.7 million, 2.6 million if you include its greater metro area (pictured above). Sometimes it is refereed to as the "Phoenix City" because of the number of wars it has survived. It's located on the Vistula River and is a major economic hub in central-eastern Europe. Warsaw (pronounced VAR-shava in Polish) means "belonging to Warsz," where Warsz is a shortened form of the masculine name Warcisław. Warcisław was a 12th/13th century nobleman who owned a village in its modern day Mariensztat neighborhood. There are many folktales that give a different origin for the name Warsaw.

Poland is divided into 16 voivodeships (sometimes called provinces) which are the high-level administration sub-division in Poland. The current 16 were formed from the previous 49 voivodeships in 1999. Each voivodeship has a governor (wojewoda) as well as an elected assembly called a sejmik led by a marszałek województwa (voivodeship marshal). Each voivodeship is broken down in powiaty (counties). A powiat is a second-level administration sub-division, in Poland there are 2 types, land-counties (powiaty ziemskie) and city-counties (powiaty grodzkie). City-counties consist of only 1 major city or town and are not further subdivided. Land-counties are further divided in gminy and consist of several towns, villages and the countryside. There are 314 land-counties and 65 city-counties in Poland. A gmina (commune or municipality) is the basic unit of administration. There are 2459 gminy in Poland. There are 3 types: 1. urban (1 town or city), 2. mixed urban-rural (1 town and its surrounding villages and countryside), and 3. rural (villages and countryside, rarely only 1 village). Each gmina has a directly elected mayor called a wójt in rural gminy, burmistrz in most urban and urban-rural gminy, or prezydent in towns with 400,000+ inhabitants. They also have a rada gminy (municipal council) or rada miasta (town assembly).

Poland's current president (elected for a 5 year term) is Bronisław Komorowski (elected in 2010) and his Prime Minister is Donald Tusk, both are members of the PO (Platforma Obywatelska or Civic Platform) Party. The party is considered a liberal-conservative and Christian democratic (i.e. center-right) party. The Prime Minister is the head of the government and leads a Council of Ministers. The President is the head of State. The Polish government is also comprised of 2 Parliamentary chambers called the Sejm (similar to the House of Representatives in the US, representatives are elected for 4 years) and the Senate. The Constitutional Tribunal (similar in function to the Supreme Court of the US) makes up the judicial branch.

Today, Poland is 91% Catholic (Roman & other) 1% Greek Orthodox, 2% Protestant or other, 2% Atheist, and 3% Agnostic; though prior to World War II there was significant religious diversity (only 62.5% of the country was Roman Catholic, 11.8% were Ukrainian Greek Catholics, 10.95% Greek Orthodox, 10.8% Jewish, and 3.7% Protestants – mostly Lutheran Evangelicals).

Polish food consists mainly of meat (especially pork) and winter vegetables (like cabbage) and is considered to be heavy because of the use of cream and eggs in so many dishes. The main meal in Poland is served around 2pm and is usually 3 courses, starting with soup, followed by an appetizer course like herring, and finished with a meat and pierogi/vegetable course. Poland is the 3rd large beer producer in Europe (after Germany and the UK).

Contemporary popular music did not really begin to take off in Poland until after 1989 with the fall of Communism. One of the biggest music scenes in Poland today is heavy metal and particularly death metal. Vader (named for Darth Vader) is the most successful death metal band in Poland (having started in 1983). There are 2 big music festivals held in Poland, the Opole and the Supot Festivals. The Kazimierz Festival is one of the larger folk music festivals, though folk music is becoming less and less popular in Poland. In literature, Poles prefer to write drama and poetic self-expression rather than fiction. Historically, almost no literature exists from before 960 in Poland and the Polish language was not used to write original works of literature until the 14th century (Latin being the preferred language for composition). Poles have a taste for dramatic theater as well. In Poland there is not such a large distinction between stage actors and movie actors, and there are several film festivals every year in Poland held in Kraków, Wrocław and Torun. Two of Poland's most famous actors are Andrzej Seweryn (he appeared in Schindler's List as Julian Scherner) and Tadeusz Łomnicki (who died in 1992).

Like most of Europe, football is the most popular sport, with over 400,000 Poles playing on a regular basis. The first professional football clubs began in the early 1900s (in what was then Austria). The Polish National Football Team won the 1972 Olympic Football Tournament and has been to 7 World Cups (1938, '74, '78, '82, '86, 2002, '06), finishing 3rd in 1974, and 1982. Basketball, Ice hockey, and Speedway are other very popular sports in Poland. The National Ice Hockey team is ranked 21st in the World and Poland is 1 of only 8 countries to never play below Division 1. Rugby, Handball, Volleyball, Tennis, Cycling, American Football (starting in 2006), Bandy, and Cycling other other semi-popular sports.