{"id":11319,"date":"2020-02-21T18:41:12","date_gmt":"2020-02-22T01:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11319"},"modified":"2020-02-21T18:41:12","modified_gmt":"2020-02-22T01:41:12","slug":"folkloric-pagan-statues-spark-a-confrontation-in-poland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11319","title":{"rendered":"“Folkloric” Pagan Statues Spark a Confrontation in Poland"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Folkloric statue (Notes from Poland).<\/p><\/div>\n

The news article, “Locals demand removal of \u201cdemonic, pagan\u201d sculptures on tourist folklore trail in Poland,<\/a>” starts this way:<\/p>\n

A small community in northern Poland is embroiled in a dispute over 13 wooden sculptures of spirits based on local folklore, pitting Catholics warning of \u201cdemonic idolatry\u201d conservatives against officials seeking to promote tourism. Some of the statues are set to be removed as a result.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am happy to see that the reporter quoted Scott Simpson<\/a>, my colleague in Pagan studies who co-edits Equinox Publishing’s Pagan-studies publishing series.<\/a><\/p>\n

Scott Simpson, a lecturer in religious studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krak\u00f3w and expert on Polish paganism, told Notes from Poland that \u201cthe 13 figures have been selected because they are very local. They belong to stories collected in that area, ethnographically, as an expression of local pride\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmongst the voices complaining about the removal, there are people interested in local folklore,\u201d with no strong religious motivations, added Simpson. Yet \u201cother people amongst them would be Contemporary Pagans, who are religiously offended by the things being taken down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contemporary Pagans in Poland are small in number but \u201crelatively visible, for example, in the folk music scene,\u201d according to Simpson. In Poland, there may be \u201cin the order of 2,500 very active participants in Slavic Native Faith<\/a> (Rodzimowierstwo)\u201d and a \u201cmuch broader range of people\u201d who sometimes participate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do not like to see their local folklore removed, which is to them sacred,\u201d said Simpson. And they worry about \u201cseeing that some religions can be put up on a pedestal, but the folk religion is sent away to be put in a museum,\u201d as the local parish priest suggested<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So will folkloric tourism win over theology? Does tourism favor Pagans (it certainly does in some places)? If I learn more, I will post it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The news article, “Locals demand removal of \u201cdemonic, pagan\u201d sculptures on tourist folklore trail in Poland,” starts this way: A small community in northern Poland is embroiled in a dispute over 13 wooden sculptures of spirits based on local folklore, pitting Catholics warning of \u201cdemonic idolatry\u201d conservatives against officials seeking to promote tourism. Some of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[256,37,296,5,218],"class_list":["post-11319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholicism","tag-folklore","tag-pagan-ish","tag-paganism","tag-poland"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2Wz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10263,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10263","url_meta":{"origin":11319,"position":0},"title":"A Pagan-ish Easter Ceremony in Poland","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"R\u0119kawka is a celebration held in Krakow the Tuesday after Easter, so loosely speaking, it is a spring equinox festival. My friend in Krakow calls it \"a civic holiday with Pagan roots.\" R\u0119kawka is also one name for the tumulus (artificial mound) in the video. The celebration has long included\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"equinox\"","block_context":{"text":"equinox","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=equinox"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8262,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8262","url_meta":{"origin":11319,"position":1},"title":"Call for Papers: Family, Home, and Ways of Life: Living Paganisms in a Globalized World","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Information on the upcoming Family, Home, and Ways of Life: Living Paganisms in a Globalized World conference in Krakow, Poland, 24-25 March 2017, may be found at this link. Presentations may address various issues within the following (suggested) topics: Everyday life of contemporary Pagans Understanding human relationships: from till death\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11657,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11657","url_meta":{"origin":11319,"position":2},"title":"Northern Wolves: Garb and Shiny Boots in a Polish Pagan Order","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"In his article \"Wolves among the Sheep: Looking Beyond the Aesthetics of Polish National Socialism,\" Polish cultural anthropologist Mariusz Filip examines the symbolic meanings of tattoos, re-created medieval garb, and modern paramilitary uniforms in the Polish Pagan group Zakon Zadrugi \u201cPolnocny Wilk,\" (the Order of Zadruga \"Northern Wolf\"). The artiicle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"fashion\"","block_context":{"text":"fashion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=fashion"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tattooed man holding medieval sword","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/FIg-4-tattoos-Igor.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/FIg-4-tattoos-Igor.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/FIg-4-tattoos-Igor.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/FIg-4-tattoos-Igor.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1322,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1322","url_meta":{"origin":11319,"position":3},"title":"Pagans, Folklore, and Dogs","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Click over to Pagans for Archaeology, where Yewtree interviews Australian Pagan scholar David Waldron, author of Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay: A Study in Local Folklore, about dogs, folklore, and the Pagan revival.I think a key issue for me was that transmission of symbols, images and ideas from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"dogs\"","block_context":{"text":"dogs","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=dogs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=095552377X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10422,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10422","url_meta":{"origin":11319,"position":4},"title":"A Festschrift for Ronald Hutton","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Magic and Witchery: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of 'The Triumph of the Moon' will be published in September by Palgrave Macmillan. I love rolling the word Festschrift around, and if you are not used to it, this is what it means: \"In academia, a Festschrift\u00a0 (plural Festschriften) is a book\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/magic-and-witchery-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14280,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14280","url_meta":{"origin":11319,"position":5},"title":"People of Wheat: Decoration Day on the High Plains","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"\/ Twiiter user Clay Scott @scottwestacre) who raises wheat in southwestern Kansas, posted this video on Memorial Day -- once known as Decoration Day, from the custom of decorating graves on that day. He wrote, \"Decoration Day. We place wreaths of wheat each year on the graves of family and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11319"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11328,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11319\/revisions\/11328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}