‘Żandary’, or Easter Monday in Poznań
Żandary is a traditional springtime procession which takes place to this day in Poznań each Easter Monday. Eight figures in homemade masks and costumes parade from early in the morning throughout the Ławnica neighbourhood of Poznań, playing instruments and chasing passersby.
The procession’s participants also eagerly enter the homes of those who are willing to admit them, offering the homeowners good holiday wishes, posing with them for photos and, on occasion, pouring water over everyone present. These masked revellers serve as proof that old village traditions can continue to thrive even in a large modern city.
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‘Żandary’ in Poznań, photo: Lia Dostlewa
It is believed that the Żandary procession has taken place each year (except for the period of the Second World War) for roughly 100 years. Similar traditions have endured in various regions of Poland and contain within them both pagan and magical rituals and beliefs on the one hand, as well as Christian tradition on the other. These are the rituals of the old men, of walking about the village with a chicken, beating a green branch, soaking passersby with water or smearing their faces with soot, and masquerading. After Poland accepted Christianity, old rituals and beliefs were prohibited by spiritual and secular authorities alike; nonetheless, a few of them survived incorporated into Christianity and cloaked with new meaning. In this fashion, they have persisted to today.
The costumed procession as such is a manifestation of village tradition. Ławnica was once a village. Later, the growth of the city and the construction of the adjacent airport had their impact; the village was absorbed into the city of Poznań, and Żandary became a municipal event.
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‘Żandary’ in Poznań, photo: Lia Dostlewa
Jadwiga Klimaszewska writes in Dorocznych Obrzędach Ludowych (Annual Folk Rituals) that the costumed procession is one of a discrete group of rituals intended to promote health and well-being. Traditionally, such rituals take place around Christmas, New Year’s and in the spring around Easter, that is, at the beginning of the calendar year and at the beginning of the agricultural year. These rituals are accompanied by good wishes for a successful and prosperous year and for a bountiful harvest extended by the participants in the procession to those local householders who invite them in.
Nowadays, it’s clear that holiday wishes sound a bit different than they once did (something along the lines of ‘good luck, good health and happy holidays’), and the rituals have noticeably undergone modernisation and been adapted to the requirements of our times. For example, the participants in the Muradyny costume parade in the village of Wałkowice have begun smearing the faces of passersby with soot in a base of Nivea skin cream, so that those who wish to take part in the local festivities can later remove the soot from their faces with ease.
Contemporary participants set out on their way right after morning Mass and only rest when the town goes to sleep, updating their current location with cellular calls or giving interviews to local TV outlets. Traditionally, the Żandary procession features eight iconic figures in colourful homemade costumes, with their faces hidden behind chimerical masks. Although the costumes and masks undergo minor changes from year to year, the iconic figures remain unchanged, and the procession’s participants remain exclusively male. (While only one figure is actually the Żandar, as described below, the characters are also collectively referred to as ‘the żandary’).
The residents of Ławnica prepare well in advance for the arrival of the Żandary marchers: one resident might prepare presents for the marchers (sweets, cakes, alcohol), while another might arm himself with water pistols, bottles or even buckets full of water to defend against the marchers’ anticipated attacks. Someone might choose to go out to await the procession, while someone else might hide out in his or her apartment and seal the windows. Those who choose to hide are importuned by the marchers to come out and show themselves.
These are the parade’s regular characters:
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‘Żandary’ in Poznań, photo: Lia Dostlewa
The most important figure in the procession is the eponymous Żandar (from the French gendarme, ‘police officer’). He wears a blue uniform and a police cap on his head, and he carries a whip. The Żandar rides his ‘horse’ (a wooden horse head attached to the Żandar’s belt so that he shouldn’t lose it). He sets the pace of the entire procession, beating his whip on the ground and flailing at passersby. If someone doesn’t move fast enough, he or she might be struck on the legs or buttocks.
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‘Żandary’ in Poznań, photo: Lia Dostlewa
Generally speaking, the whipping of passersby is an indispensable part of the ritual – żandary do indeed hit anyone they can reach. Children are only lashed symbolically, and girls are struck lightly on their posteriors, but men are struck with greater force. One older resident of the neighbourhood who accompanied our research group complained throughout our visit that today’s żandary just aren’t what they used to be – they whip too weakly, and they chase onlookers more slowly and with less enthusiasm than they used to and, besides, everyone in Ławnica now knows who’s behind the masks. ‘In the old days, they’d hit people for real; you could see the bruises for a week afterwards’, she nostalgically recalled. Indeed, you can find information indicating that on occasion residents who had been hit too hard with the whip had summoned the (real) police for assistance.
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‘Żandary’ in Poznań, photo: Lia Dostlewa
The next figure is the Bear, led on a rope by an Old Man. These days, the Bear is dressed in a faux fur coat with a large-eared fur mask on his head and a rather large bell hanging from his belt. Due to this, when he dances, each step is met with a joyful peal of the bell. The Bear used to dress in a costume made entirely of straw (like the straw mulch of the Muradyny procession), but one time someone set the Bear on fire, and ever since the Bear has worn a safer costume. This is the best example of how traditions are updated to meet modern needs.
The Old Man who leads the Bear wears a costume covered in colourful ribbons – together, the Bear and Old Man look a bit like figures from a Japanese arthaus.
The second Old Man differs from the first in that he has a humpback and focusses primarily on chasing passersby. He beats those he catches with a wooden stick.
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‘Żandary’ in Poznań, photo: Lia Dostlewa
The Priest is a broad-shouldered man in a clerical surplice. His mask is pure white, as is the bucket from which he sprinkles the crowd with ‘holy water’. That is, sometimes he sprinkles, but other times he simply pours the whole bucket onto someone’s head. During our visit, the Priest sprinkled not only the parade audience and passing drivers, but also a bus, a police patrol and... my camera.
It was interesting to see how some drivers would pull up to greet the żandary and to give them some small gifts. It was something else entirely when a few cars pulled up just so that their passengers could soak the żandary with water pistols or plastic water bottles.
This led to an amusing episode. When the marchers passed a multi-storey house, a roughly seven-year-old boy energetically opened fire on them from the second floor with a ready barrage of water bombs, which markedly perked up the by-now quite exhausted group of revellers.
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‘Żandary’ in Poznań, photo: Lia Dostlewa
The Chimney Sweep looks a bit like a negative of the Priest, as he is dressed entirely in black, his face is hidden by a black balaclava, and he wears black gloves on his hands. He also carries a broom with which he happily whacks on the buttocks anyone who is careless enough to get too near to him. But his superpower lies in something else: The Chimney Sweep walks up to members of the viewing crowd and shakes their hands. With his outstretched hand, he seizes the hand offered in return, holds his victim close and, with his free hand, smears the victim’s face with soot (formerly) or black shoe polish (these days). The Chimney Sweep is valiant and determined: By the afternoon, our entire research group had black-smeared faces.
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‘Żandary’ in Poznań, photo: Lia Dostlewa
Since women cannot take part in Żandary, the role of the Old Lady is played by a man in drag. The Old Lady wears a colourful, flowery skirt and a scarf on her head, and she holds a basket into which she piles the foods and presents that the żandary collect from the crowd. The Old Lady also has a wooden stick. Guess what for! Of course, to threaten passersby and strike anyone who comes too close.
At a certain point in our wanderings, we met a young woman with an infant in a pram and three more children. Upon seeing the marchers, a three-year-old (or so) girl shouted: ‘Daddy, Daddy!’ ‘It’s not Daddy – now it’s the Old Lady’, her mother explained. The frightening hag turned out to be a loving husband and the father of the four children.
It may seem that the Player was included in this company entirely by accident: he doesn’t threaten anyone, he doesn’t smear or soak anyone. He just walks with the marchers and plays his accordion, cheering up the crowd with his happy tunes. This year, the Player’s authentic mask was damaged on the night before the procession, so the Player had to settle for a mass-produced mask from the nearest supermarket.
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‘Żandary’ in Poznań, photo: Lia Dostlewa
The climactic moment of the procession is connected with the local bakery or, more precisely, with its tall chimney. That chimney is to be scaled by the Old Lady, aided by the Chimney Sweep. Under her skirt, the Old Lady wears enormous white bloomers with the Devil painted on them (which illustrates well the folk superstition that women are a source of sin and that female sexuality has a diabolical nature). The Old Lady is supposed to display the Devil to all from atop the chimney. The Old Lady climbs the chimney each year at about the same time, so crowds gather opposite the bakery in the afternoon.
The żandary enter the courtyard of the bakery and barricade themselves behind the gate, as they know that children are waiting for them armed with water pistols and water-filled bottles. The Player plays, the Chimney Sweep and the Old Lady climb onto the roof and dance a bit, and then the Old Lady climbs up the chimney and raises her skirt, displaying the Devil. The crowd happily applaud.
This year, the Old Lady and Chimney Sweep didn’t climb very high, because the fire ladder against the chimney began to sway quite visibly. An old woman who was showing us around muttered disapprovingly that, in her time, ‘the chimney was twice as tall, but the żandary still climbed to the very top’. Well, as we know, everything was always better ‘back in the day’ – but the key thing here was that, once again, tradition was maintained and a wonderful time was had by all.
Originally written in Polish, Apr 2020, translated by Yale Reisner, Mar 2021
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