In the past it was considered shameful in Poland no to get married if the girl reached the marriageable age. Actually, girls were supposed to get married at very young age. The ways to announce that the girl is ready to be asked to marry were different: the houses were painted in sky blue colour in Krakov region, one side of the house was dotted with whitewash in other areas of the country; some people painted the fence in white, others added wreath to the front door and so on.

“Wywiady” or “Zamowiny”

“Wywiady” or “Zamowiny” was the inquiry and proposal of a potential groom to the girl he liked. The process was done through so-called intermediaries, namely, an old woman in the village/town and the oldest man of the community, called correspondingly a “swata” and a “swat”. The practice was exercised in order not to put a future groom in an embarrassing situation, in case the girl didn’t agree to the proposal. First, the perspective groom would say to the swata about the girl he liked, and if the woman considered that the girl may give a positive answer to the young man, she passed the information to the swat, who performed the actual act of passing information to the girl’s family.

The swat usually came to the perspective bride’s house in the evening with a specially made for this occasion bottle of vodka called “gesiorka”. The bottle was topped with flowers, and a red ribbon was tied around the neck of the bottle. Swat would put the bottle on the table and ask the young girl to bring him a glass. If the girl went away and didn’t come back or if the family didn’t accept the bottle, then their answer was negative and no further negotiation was made. In other case, there were some arrangements made about swat returning back with the young man to discuss the whole thing. When the young man came to the house, he brought a bottle of gesiorka with him as well. In order for the engagement to take place, the girl had to pour some of the vodka in a glass and sip it herself and then offer the young man a drink from the same glass. If the young girl didn’t want to join with this young man, he and the swat would be given a dark soup (czarnina) or watermelon (arbuz).

Dziewczyny Wieczor

An evening before the wedding day was called “dzievczyny wieczor” or the maiden evening. It was the time when bridesmaids came to the bride’s house to help her decorate it, cook the dishes for the wedding feast, make boutonnieres of rosemary for the groom's family and just say good-buy to the bride, since it was the last evening when she was an unmarried woman. The main rituals included weaving the wreath, which symbolized the single life and which the bride would wear for the last time in her life. Besides, the wedding breads (the kolacz) were cooked.