#polaz

My project today:

I’m just getting started on my first ever polaz. An old Czech Christmas decoration symbolizing the reborn sun.

I’d love to hear what you guys have planned with your various backgrounds.

Not tagged? Id still love to hear from you! 😊

I spent all day making this Slavic solstice decorative piece. Inspo from @dvoeverie-stitches !

It’s so helpful for me to craft during the darkest days of winter instead of dreading its inevitable presence every year. Embracing and looking forward to the slow return of the sun. I present this year’s activity, the sun mobile or “polaz”.

A pictorial “how to”

A polaz is an old Czech decoration hung from the ceiling. It has the shape of a ball and is stuck with natural objects. It should hang properly from the solstice. It represents the sun and is supposed to symbolize abundance and health. It is a reminder of an old pagan holiday (koleda). It comes from the word "polazit" or to walk around caroling.

The round base used to be an apple, potato or dough. You can also use an orange, grapefruit, moss or polystyrene ball that you cover with fabric. First, make a hole through the ball. Thread a string through it and finish it off with a bead or bow at the bottom. Leave an eyelet at the top for hanging. Cut the skewers in half and thread decorations onto them. What you use is up to you. For example, dried peel from oranges or tangerines, which you cut out while still fresh with small cookie cutters. Dried apples, rose hips are also suitable, you can use various bows. You can stick in twigs of conifers and other green decorations from nature.

I saw them in photos of folk Christmas scenes in Czech museums last year and between google translate and a Facebook page for Czech descendants managed to figure out what they were.

It is a tradition not only in Czechia, but in Slovakia, Poland, and also in the Balkans.

I used foraged trifoliate orange peel from making jelly in early autumn. It went a lot faster when I figured out to rehydrate the dried peel.

More examples here:

The polaz, the shining sun, bright in color.

It brings light, abundance and health.

It is a symbol of life and hope in the darkest days of winter.

“Manger des crêpes à la chandeleur apporte un an de bonheur" (Eating crêpes on Candlemas brings a year of happiness).

The three days of Brigid’s Night, Brigid’s Day/Hromnice/Candlemas Eve, and Hromnice/Candlemas Day are probably the days in my yearly rituals with the most syncretism—peaking on Candlemas Day when I throw Fête de la Chandeleur crepes into the mix to represent my Québécois ancestry.

But—I make Czech palačinky (crepes) and instead of rolling them around the jam filling I leave them round to represent the growing sun, and this year I slathered them with trifoliate orange jelly I made in the autumn from my foraged oranges to further represent the sun. And I still use my Brigid Day decorations.

To me the round oranges obviously represent the sun (I used them in my Midwinter polaz as well), but also the bittersweet flavor represents this cusp of the year—bitter winter giving way soon to sweet spring.