THE SENDING OF THE OPLATKI
AT the luncheon table there was great excitement. Something was astir in
the air.
"Take your time, children," Mr. Ostrowski said forcibly, as he watched
their hurried anxiety. "Brother Paul will be here shortly; but there is
p-l-e-n-t-y of time."
"We wish he had come before luncheon," spoke up Peter. "It is now almost
too late for Cousin Frederic to receive his oplatki before Christmas."
"A few hours more or less, my son," Mrs. Ostrowska answered, "will make
very little difference. We could not have Brother Paul come sooner
because we were waiting for your sister to arrive. We all wanted to be
together to receive the good Brother."
Turning toward her eldest daughter, Mrs. Lechowicz, she continued:
"Brother Paul, as well as the priest, has had his hands full this
winter. There has been a great deal of sickness among the poor."
"It has been so in our part of the country, too," replied the daughter.
"It seems to be a bad year all round."
"The crops are poor; but we are thankful to say there will be sufficient
for our own people. What the rest of Poland's poor will do, it is
difficult to say. I had planned to take the children to Cracow for St.
John's Night--"
"Oh, mother," interrupted the young Marya, "will you?"
"Don't interrupt, Marya; it is very bad manners. I was going to say,"
Mrs. Ostrowska continued, addressing her children, "I had planned to
take you to the feast of St. John's Night in the City if all went well
upon the estate. But I know you would not care to go and enjoy
yourselves if there were sickness and distress here at home among our
people."
"But June is so far away," the young girl pleaded, "there is yet lots of
time for a good season."
"But illness lingers," the mother added.
"I will join you, mother," Mrs. Teczynska spoke up. "It will not be a
long run up and Jan would love to see the celebration of the Wianki, I
am sure."
"Let us all plan to go," added the younger married daughter. "It would
be great fun."
"And will you take us?" added a chorus of young voices from around the
great table, while expectant faces beamed.
"Yes, all of you," the elders replied in one voice.
"What is it all about, mother?" Jan managed to say, after vainly
endeavoring for some time to edge in his question.
"Once every year," Mrs. Teczynska replied, "in the city of Cracow,
where we got off the train and took the sleigh to come up here, the
people have a holiday. They call it the celebration of the Wianki, or
wreaths, and it takes place on the twenty-fourth day of June, which is
the eve of St. John's Night. They have fireworks and all sorts of
gayeties."
"But what does it all mean?" the child persisted.
"Well," his mother continued, seeing that the child did not comprehend
as the older children did, "many, many years ago there was a good and
very wise king in Cracow named Krakus. He had a most beautiful daughter,
Wanda, who was so handsome that the fame of her beauty travelled all
over the country. Princes and noblemen from other lands sent their
messengers to ask her hand in marriage; but the Princess Wanda did not
care for any of them. At length, a fierce, determined German prince,
named Rytyger, fell so madly in love with the princess that he swore he
would win her for his own. But the father of the princess had meantime
died, leaving her in full possession of the kingdom; and, whether it was
really the fair princess Rytyger craved, or the kingdom over which she
ruled, we may not know for a certainty. However that may be, he sent his
messengers to ask her hand in marriage, but the Princess Wanda promptly
refused his offer. As soon as the envoys returned with the refusal,
Prince Rytyger was more determined than ever to possess the Polish
princess. He wrote her a most impertinent letter, demanding that she
become his wife at once or else he would march into her domains and
carry her off, whether she were willing or not. The Princess Wanda read
the letter from the haughty German prince. She set her lips hard with
firm determination. If _he_ were determined, so was she. Without a
moment's loss of time, she gathered her army together, marched out of
Poland and into the country of the German prince. She sent word to him
of her arrival, and added that she meant to give battle. The prince was
very much surprised at this news, you may be certain; however, there was
nothing to do but accept the challenge so long as he had been the one to
open the argument. After the battle was finished many of the Germans
were left upon the field, while Wanda returned to her castle-fortress of
Wawel in Cracow.
"Seeing there was no use to refuse the offers of marriage that were made
her, and fearing that other foreign princes might come into her land and
wage war against her subjects on her account, she jumped from the top of
the great stone wall that surrounded her palace, and fell into the river
Vistula, which runs at the foot. And ever since, the Polish people have
commemorated her death by casting wreaths into the river, at about the
spot where Princess Wanda jumped into the waters. This is the meaning
of the feast of St. John's Eve celebration of the Wianki."
"I should love to see it," the little fellow said, after a few moments'
silence. "Will you surely take me?"
"Yes, indeed, if the other little cousins go," his mother replied. "When
I was a little girl, like your Aunt Marya here," she continued, glancing
at her young sister, "I went to the celebration. And you will open your
eyes wide, Jan, I'll tell you that."
"Oh, goody, I wish it was the twenty-fourth of June now."
"But we have the Christmas season now," his grandfather spoke up. "That
is much better, for we are all together. We have the fine snow for
sleighing and snowballing. We have the ponds to skate upon, and we
have--the Jaselki."
"What's that?" little Jan asked.
"Jan, dear," his mother said, "please do not ask so many questions. Let
your grandfather finish before you interrupt."
"But he says so many things I don't know anything about," the child
answered.
"That is right, Martha," Mr. Ostrowski said, "let the little chap learn.
Of course he doesn't know what the Jaselki are, for he is too little to
know everything. But that is a secret, Jan," the grandfather continued,
as he shook a gentle finger at the boy. "You will see something
wonderful at this Christmas season."
The maid entered; she said a few words in a low tone to Mrs. Ostrowska,
and left the room.
"How we have lingered!" the grandmother said, as she rose from her seat
at the table. "Brother Paul has been waiting some little time. Let us
all rise to greet him!"
As they obeyed, the door at the farther end of the long dining-room
opened, and a monk, clad in a long black robe with a girdle of rope
about his waist, stood upon the threshold. In his hand he held his black
beaver hat, and under his arm was a small package upon which the
children kept their eyes assiduously glued.
"Welcome, Brother Paul," Mr. Ostrowski said as he greeted the monk. "The
little folks have been in a fever of impatience; you are well come."
"I hear the same story in every home," the monk replied, as he turned
and smiled at the row of happy faces. "They are all anxious for their
oplatki."
"Let us go into the library," Mr. Ostrowski said, as he threw open the
heavy doors communicating with that room; "the fire burns brightly
there, and you must be cold."
"It certainly is raw without," the monk replied. "We are to have a long,
hard winter, I fear."
"We just arrived this morning, Brother Paul," Mrs. Teczynska said. "We
had a dreadfully cold ride from Cracow. I thought little Jan's nose
would be nipped."
"Come here, son, and let's see if Jack Frost got away with any of it,"
the monk said.
The little fellow obeyed with a very serious face. He had quite an awe
for the brotherhood; he held up his face for inspection.
"I believe it's all there," the brother laughingly said, as he examined
the boy's serious face. "But you had a narrow escape."
Brother Paul drew up to the great table in the centre of the room,
having sufficiently warmed his numbed hands at the welcome fire.
Surrounded by the anxious, waiting children he untied the package he had
brought. With keen interest they watched the monk draw forth a neat
packet which he handed to Mr. Ostrowski, who untied it. Within, lay a
quantity of small, round wafers, thin enough to be almost transparent,
made from flour and water, upon each of which was impressed a religious
picture. Upon one was the image of the Christ, another bore the
resemblance of the manger, or of a saint.
"I shall get mine off right away," Peter said. "May I?" turning to his
father.
Seeing there was no holding back the children's impetuosity, Mrs.
Ostrowska handed the children some of the oplatki, which they at once
proceeded to enclose in letters already waiting.
"I hope Cousin Frederic will get this before Christmas Day," Peter said,
"but it is pretty late."
The rest of the afternoon was spent in writing letters and sending off
the oplatki or Christmas cards to such of the relatives as were unable
to be present with the family at this season. It is as much an event in
Polish families to send these cards as it is with us; they bear messages
of love and good-will, although they have no verses upon them. The
priest of the village has put his blessing upon them, and these
blessings go forth to the dear, absent ones. No written sentiment is
necessary, for the absent know that the home-folks are thinking of them.
It is a beautiful custom, and if it should happen that any of you
children should receive an oplatki at the Christmas season, you will
know what it is meant to convey.
Perhaps some of you more observant readers have remarked the difference
in spelling the name of Mr. Ostrowski and his wife. While Mr.
Ostrowski's name ends in "i," his wife's name ends with an "a;" this is
simply a peculiarity of the Polish language, being the masculine and
feminine ending of the name.