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Polish Week • Wycinanki and Mazurki Decorating Workshop
March 26, 2018 @ 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
In Poland, Easter egg-making has developed into a true art form, with many methods, traditions, and rituals associated with it. Wycinanki (pronounced vee-chee-nan-kee) is the Polish word for paper-cut design. This workshop will provide the participants with everything they’ll need to make their very own Polish Wycinanki Easter Eggs. In addition, the participants will be able to decorate a pre-baked mazurek, one of the main Easter desserts in Poland.
For more info, please contact the event organizer Kristina Juergensmeyer (kgjuerg@live.unc.edu)
RSVP at the following link: goo.gl/8zt1zk
The first record about the origin of wycinanki mentions the area of Warsaw’s surroundings, yet the first collections organized between 1901 and 1905 are dominated by wycinanki from the towns of the Łowicz, Kurpie, and Kołbiel regions. Traditionally, wycinanki were made with large scissor designed for sheep shearing. What’s even more fascinating is that no stencil nor pencil sketch was used. Wycinanki can take on various shapes: stars, circles, trees, rosettes, leluje (highlanders name for lilies), dolls, kogutki (‘cockerels’) – basically, the name comes from whatever a wycinanka is depicting. But the shape isn’t all – the vast majority of Polish wycinanki are very colorful. The colors that dominate in Polish wycinanki are shades of red, green, yellow, blue and gold.
Considered uniquely Polish, the mazurek is one of the primary desserts of Easter across Poland. The mazurek starts off with a shortbread-like crust, which is be topped with a layer or combination of layers consisting of fruit jam, dried fruit, a thick caramel, chocolate, or nuts. Like so many foods in Poland, the tarts are beautifully decorated, in patterns, a pussy willow design (a symbol of spring and used in places of palms on Palm Sunday), or with “Wesolego Alleluja” (Happy Easter) piped in meringue or chocolate ganache.
Source: culture.pl
This event is part of the Polish Week at UNC (March 26-29, 2018), co-sponsored by the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies, Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Center for European Studies, Department of German and Slavic Languages and Literatures, Department of History, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, Department of Music, and the Program in Global Cinema Studies.