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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | FYI-
October is Polish American Heritage Month
National Headquarters
Polish American Heritage Month Committee - Michael Blichasz, National Chairman
National Headquarters: Polish American Cultural Center Museum
308 Walnut Street • Philadelphia, PA 19106 • (215) 922-1700
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Things to Do During
Polish American Heritage Month
Listed below are suggested activities for your October celebration.
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Community Wide
1. Meet with your local Polish American organizations to discuss a successful, well-coordinated Polish American Heritage Month event.
2. Request local elected officials to present a proclamation or special greetings to the Polish American community.
3. Offer a Mass at your local church for the intention of your area Polish American community and invite everyone to attend. Following the Mass, hold a reception with Polish pastries and refreshments, welcoming all in the spirit of Polish hospitality.
4. Sponsor an event to honor noted men and women of Poland. During October we mark the death of American Revolutionary War Hero General Casimir Pulaski on October 15th. You can conduct a tribute ceremony in front of a portrait of Pulaski. You can also consider honoring people such as Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Fryderyk Chopin, Marie Sklodowska Curie and others.
5. Encourage people to display Polish and American flags and Polish American Heritage Month posters in their homes, organizational headquarters, banks, businesses, etc. Flags, posters and banners help bring attention to the fact that October is National Polish American Heritage Month and that Polonia is celebrating proudly. Sample posters are available from the Heritage Month link on the Museum’s Internet site at: PolishAmericanCenter.com
6. Sponsor a lunch or dinner social with Polish food, music and entertainment.
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Youth Activities
1. Organize an essay contest in your local schools. Complete information on sponsoring an essay contest is available from the Museum’s Internet site. You can award prizes during a school assembly or public event to encourage participation from parents and students alike. Ask local businesses and organizations to help sponsor the event and offer prizes. This is also a way to involve local teachers as judges of the essay contest.
2. Sponsor a coloring contest. Art work samples are available upon request from the national committee or you can download coloring forms from the Museum’s Internet site. The coloring contest remains very popular in schools.
Ask local art students to organize and judge the entries. Ask a local printer to reprint the artwork for your committee at no charge with the name of his business at the bottom as an advertisement.
3. Sponsor a children’s music or dance recital to highlight Polish music or dance in a local auditorium, school hall or recreation center. There are children's groups that would appreciate this type of exposure. It’s a great way to get people together for a positive event involving young people. Invite the general public to attend.
4. Sponsor a Polish poster art contest requesting area schools to highlight Polish history and culture through student art. Display their art works and sponsor an award ceremony.
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Cultural Displays
1. Organize a display at your local shopping mall or library featuring Polish books, arts and crafts, wycinanki and paintings by Polish American artists. Contact local artists and request them to display their works at the local library, parish hall, organization hall, public or office building lobby.
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Media Contact & General Advertising
1. Display Polish American Heritage Month posters. Sample posters are available from the National Committee, or they can be downloaded from the Heritage Month link on the Museum’s Internet site at: PolishAmericanCenter.org. You can reprint these posters and encourage local stores, banks, supermarkets, churches and organizations to display the posters throughout the month of October.
2. Contact your local newspapers, radio and TV stations to tell them about National Polish American Heritage Month and your local activities.
3. Ask local radio programs to mention your area Polish American events during October as part of their community bulletin board or public service announcements. (Every radio station is required to give time for public service announcements.) You can also ask your radio stations to play a few selections written by Polish composers over the centuries and recorded by internationally famous artists. This is a way for them to bring attention to Polish American Heritage Month and highlight Polish composers.
4. Ask local organizations, banks, businesses and elected leaders to place a "POLISH AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH SALUTE" advertisement in local newspapers or on local radio or TV programs. Placing these salutes each week during the month of October will remind everyone about POLISH AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH. (The National Committee has an artwork for the newspaper, radio and TV salutes available upon request.)
5. Ask area high school and college students of Polish descent to assist you with press releases, public service announcements and other activities. Often this is a way for younger students to get extra credit for school and will allow them to be part of the Polish American Heritage Month celebration. Possibly there are individuals in your community with children who could be called upon to assist you with publicity and other efforts.
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Family & Friends
1. Start your family tree and invite all the members of your family to get involved.
2. Review a map of Poland and learn more about the town or city of your ancestors.
3. Read a book on Polish history and share that information with family and friends.
4. Attend a Polish American event and invite others to attend with you.
5. Display a Polish and American flag, a red and white bow, or a Heritage Month poster in your home or place of business.
6. Learn more about Polish customs and share that information with others.
7. Join a Polish American organization and get involved in some way.
For more information contact the National Headquarters:
Polish American Heritage Month Committee - Michael Blichasz, National Chairman
National Headquarters: Polish American Cultural Center Museum
308 Walnut Street • Philadelphia, PA 19106 • (215) 922-1700
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=HPID%2CHPID%3A2005-17%2CHPID...
Links to Polish Pages
http://stjoenj.net/polishlinks.html |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | 7. Polka till you puke. |
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Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | And then there is THIS ... www.polishjoke.com
"KNOCK KNOCK"
[Who's There?]
"POLISH BURGLER" |
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Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | Actually, Al I'm honored you addressed this thread to me. I'm proud of my heritage (as are you) and it's cool to share this with others. Sadly, my grandparents were really quite old by the time I was old enough to ask questions about their homeland (plus they only spoke Polish). My Dad used to take me with him the local Polish Club (we never called it Polish AMERICAN) on Saturdays to watch NBC Baseball Game Of The Week. Mom thought it was such a nice father-son thing to do. Little did she know that Dad was going there just to drink with his buddies while I watched the game and played the pinball machine. Truth is growing up I was somewhat embarrased about being (half) Polish. It seemed so much cooler to an Italian kid or a Jew. When people asked, I used to say I was "mostly English" (my mom). But as an adult, now I actually think it was sorta cool being Polish and would like to learn more about my roots. Al, send me some damn pickles !!!
Dave |
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November 2002
Posts: 1300
Location: Madison, Wisconsin | I read thru every one of those things to do looking for a punch line. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12761
Location: Boise, Idaho | Thanks, Al. I see that I moved from the state with the largest percentage of Polish population (Wisconsin) to one with one of the lowest. The only other Pole I can think of around here is kind of strange, so I don't think I'll try to start up any celebration. I will put some Chopin in the CD player, though. I have an original watercolor of St. Stanislaus square (I think) that was brought out of the country back in the cold war era. |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | I remember when I was a kid, I had one of those HUGE Crayola crayon sets of like a thousand different colours.
One of the colours was Polish Purple. |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | . . . btw:
the crayon was green. |
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April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | ...and then to think, there are those who speak of, American Heritage.. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12761
Location: Boise, Idaho | Oops. The picture in my office is actually of Zygmunt's column outside the palace in Warsaw. Thanks for prompting me to do some research, Al. |
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July 2005
Posts: 3411
Location: GA USA | We could probably have a dandy essay contest right here. |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Originally posted by alpep:
FYI-
October is Polish American Heritage Month . . . celebrated in March... |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | culminates with Polish kids at your door shouting:
". . Trick or . . . . . . . . . (oh,sh!t!)" |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | grew up in a very Polish/Italian neighborhood. I knew REAL mobsters but most were just hard working factory peoople.
I was sent to the PACC Polish American Citizen's Club on saturday morning along with my sister to "Polish school" we learned the Polish language and I was rather proficient as a kid.
some of you are old enough to remember "all in the family" archie's son in law was the dumb Pollock meathead. That is when I was really embarassed about being Polish. Got too many jokes etc and I stayed aways. Let the langauage go, kept some of the customs around the house but really when people would ask if I was anything but Polish I would always answer yeah. (some chick thought i was british so I had to speak to her in a faux british accent LOL)
Now that my parents are gone and many relatives are gone, I sorta miss the parties and food and things. so I will celebrate this October with some pierogies, kielbasa, kapusta, and glompki. |
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January 2005
Posts: 640
Location: boulder | Every month is Irish month,
Darn good thing my great grandmother was poor irish and got bumped off the titanic...
I visited my relatives in Ireland this summer. small port on the southwest coast. Found out my great grandfther came from all the way across the valley and it was a big stir when he married my great grandmother. (It was all of 2 miles).
this picture is looking back to mainland from Michael skellig rock, 6th century monks carved the steps and beehive rock houses. It is 600 feet tall. and then they add to row 7 miles to shore to trade for food.
IF YOU EVER GET A CHANCE TO FIND OUT WHO YOUR RELATIVES ARE....DO IT. IT'S as cool as guitars, well pretty close. peace mike |
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Joined:
March 2007
Posts: 665
Location: Tychy, Poland | if you guys are interested, i may share with you some "real" polish music, not that "export" folk performed by groups of young blondes dancing to polka, or old womans singing about mountains where they came from. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12761
Location: Boise, Idaho | If someone asks me if my name is Polish, I still think that they are joking. In Milwaukee they'd ask if it was Russian just to be funny. I also grew up with the dumb Pollack imprimatur and we were quite sensitive about it. My dad grew up without any of the traditions, because his parents didn't want him to look like a foreigner. He only learned 2 Polish words and one of them was for coffee. I don't remember the other.
My brother was so tired of the dumb comments that he punched someone's lights out for calling him a dumb Pollack once too often. He's lucky he's not in jail.
I figure the jokes must have helped some, because we all got college degrees or better and, alt least by standardized tests, we appear to be intelligent. The other thing I learned is that one of the worst insults is to call someone stupid. Maybe our next trip to Europe will be to Poland. It's funny how pride in one's ancestry seems to take a few years to set in. |
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March 2007
Posts: 665
Location: Tychy, Poland | there is a lot of nice places to see in poland.
i think that part of the jokes about Poles came to live because polish people often are too humble. We don't fight really often for things we deserve.
Eh.
i feel that i need to go to some english school again. I can't find proper words for my thoughts. |
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August 2004
Posts: 604
Location: Tampa, FL | In the 70's I spent 4 1/2 years stationed on the USS Casimir Pulaski (SSBN 633). The only Polish boat in the US Navy, it was built to sink (although we preferred the term submerge).
When I first got married, I was having trouble getting a phone due to my nonexistant credit history. The lady at the phone company kept mentioning the fact that sailors were notoriously bad credit risks. Then she noticed my ship's patch on my uniform. Turns out she was the president of the local Polish American club. Their club ended up adopting our boat's crew for a couple of events. In return we sent them some of our ship's propaganda (e.g. memorabilia)
I got the phone deposit free. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | I never thought it strange when I was growing up that we celebrated Pulaski day in Oct and everyone else on earth celebrated Columbus day. LOL |
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March 2006
Posts: 482
Location: enid, ok | Some of my best friends are poles. They'll stand there and listen to you all day. |
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October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | Originally posted by maxdaddy7271:
Some of my best friends are poles. They'll stand there and listen to you all day. just keep the dogs away. |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I'm a 13th generation American, with our family homestead in western Massachusetts. The first family settlers came over in the mid-1600's, then the tree goes back three generations in Ireland and I think ten more in England. All that history and we're still looking for the day that somebody actually makes something of themselves. |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Oh, I forgot. We have two historic figures in our tree . . . Rebecca Nurse, burnt at the stake in Salem for allegedly being a witch, and Revolutionary War hero Lt. Nathanial Hale who regretted that he had but one life to give for his country. |
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April 2006
Posts: 1017
Location: Budd Lake, NJ | Two of our dearest friends, Andrzej and Ela, are from Lodz; knowing them led made me to read James Michener's book, "Poland." I really appreciate my country much more, listening to their stories about growing up behind the Wall--they had to defect in order to get here. The Poles are an incredibly resilient people; my friends are hard-working, generous to a fault. A real blessing to know; I can't imagine my life without them.
(And homemade pierogies are the best!!)
Do widzenia for now,
--Karen |
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for witko
