Sundays on Broad Street are usually quiet. Many of the stores close in the early afternoon if they are open at all. The street is briefly populated when Mass at Sacred Heart lets out and then becomes vacant until the next Mass is over.
Yesterday was different. Yesterday was the last Sunday in April, an ordinary day everywhere but in New Britain. In New Britain it is “Little Poland Day”, a day to celebrate Poland, Polonia, and a very special street-Broad Street, New Britain.
This was the third year for the festival, a small miracle since a few months ago it looked like there would not be a festival. There had been some personal changes at the Polonia Business Association and its parent organization, the Polish American Foundation, leaving no one with the time to organize a festival as large as the Little Poland Festival. There was also a schedule problem-the last Sunday in April this year was the day for the Canonization of Pope John Paul-a celebration day for the entire world, and all the more for Poland and Polonia. Meetings were held, date changes discussed, and festival organizers considered. Things continued to look bleak until Lucian Pawlak, former New Britain mayor and current Pulaski Club president, volunteered to organize the Festival. In the few weeks remaining before the festival date, Lucian, with his two helpers Mila and Natalia, made it happen, there would be a Little Poland Festival on Broad Street.
This is my third year attending the Little Poland Festival. The first year, I was a visitor, spending about an hour at the Festival. The second year, I returned as a volunteer working the beer booth. It was fun, but we ran out of Polish beer, Zywiec-my favorite, around three o’clock and I had to wash my sneakers twice to get the spilled beer off of them. This year, I worked at the Polish American Foundation table and spent the day telling people about the Polish language school for adults at the PAF. I had also convinced Jonathan Shea, genealogist and president of the Polish Genealogy Society of Connecticut to hang out at the PAF table with me. One of Jonathan’s friends, genealogist Tim Firkowski from New Hampshire surprised us by driving down from New Hampshire for the Festival. Both Jonathan and Tim are experts in Polish genealogy and it was a great opportunity for people to have both of them there to answer their questions and explain how to do Polish genealogy research. Later on, Tim put on his traditional Polish outfit-more about this later. OK, enough about us, let’s talk about the Festival.
For me, Festivals are about food and shopping. The Little Poland Festival covered both those points. I didn’t do a scientific poll, but I think I would be correct in saying that most of us were there for the FOOD! First, I will say, I was bummed that the Thai Restaurant was not at the Festival this year. I know it is a little odd to go to a Polish Festival and want Thai food-but I had it last year and it was good and their line was short. This year there was a food booth serving delicious looking Italian sausage and pepper grinders. I saw lots of those sandwiches walking by my booth. I sampled food from Polmart (bigos), East Side restaurant (apple strudel and a free bottle of water-thanks Nick!), Haller Post (coffee and stuffed cabbage and tables to sit at while you eat) and Polonia Taste (potato pancakes). Zieleniak’s and Belvedere also had booths and long lines. I will also add that Zieleniak’s was serving soup out of an army tank-that was different. There was an Italian pastry booth that had Italian ice, one of my favorites, but it was too cold for Italian ice. Please note: for those people who are not familiar with bigos-I will cover it in a future blog but if you run into some before then-give it a try.
Shopping. I was a little disappointed with the shopping. There were not many booths selling goods and most of them were the stores on Broad Street which are there every day. The winner for shopping was the fishing rod booth-I had never seen a fishing rod booth at a street festival. I did see someone carrying a fishing rod down the street and I am curious how his sales went for the day.
Most of the booths were related to services, such as Connecticare, Century 21, and Liberty Mutual insurance. I ran into a former co-worker who now works at Connecticare and that was unexpected and a nice surprise. The winner in the service related booths was the Duksa Funeral Home. Yes, a funeral home had a booth at the Festival. They were making the coolest balloon hats I have ever seen. Second place goes to the UCONN Polish Cultural Society. They had the best idea ever, which I may steal at some point. They had four UCONN students dressed in Krakowia costumes and they had a magical looking horse contraption set up so small children could stand in it and look like they were riding the horse.
This brings me to my favorite part of the day-the tourists. I lost count of how many people wanted to take their picture (I am talking adults, not children) with the four Krakowia girls or Tim in his traditional outfit from the Kujawy area of Poland. At first I thought it was a little strange, they were behaving like tourists on vacation, but then I realized-the Little Poland Festival and Broad Street is like going on vacation. This is what the Festival is about-showing off the Polish culture of New Britain and transporting you to Poland for a few hours.
I want to add a big thank you to Lucian Pawlak for doing the Festival and giving us the opportunity to show off Broad Street.
If you missed the festival this year-there is Dozynki on August 23-24. See you there.
Do widzenia.
Dorena