Table Of ContentM H K
Muqum Histoiycqtc Miasta
Krakowa
Lukasz Olszewski
The Lajkonik
Legend and Tradition
M H K
The Historical Museum of the City of Krakow
Krakow 2009
Editorial Board of the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow:
Michal Niczabitowski (przewodniczacy), Elzbieta Firlet, Ewa Gaczol, Grazyna
Lichohczak-Nurek, Waclaw Passowicz, Stanislaw Piwowarski, Jacek Salwinski,
Joanna Strzyzcwska, Maria Zientara
Reviewers:
Aleksandra Jakliriska-Duda, Jacek Salwinski
Editor:
Magdalena Fryzlewicz
Translated by:
Maria M. Piechaczek-Borkowska
Design and typesetting:
Artur Brozonowicz
Photographs by:
Rafa! Korzeniowski, Daniel Zawadzki
Cover illustration:
Witold Chomicz, TheLajkonik, 1968, coloured woodcut on paper, MHK
ISBN 978-83-7577-080-3
© Muzeum Historycznc Miasta Krakowa 2009
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Dressed like a Tartar and mounted on
A Tartar horse - watch the rafter stroll
Around the commons like he did before
For we all cherish the charm of his lore
Edmund Wasilewski
The hobby horse of Zwicrzyniec, commonly referred to as the lajkonik
[pronounced ‘lie-con-eek’j, is an unusual folk festival celebrated nowhere else
in Poland except Krakow. The event takes place on the octave of Corpus
Christi, i.e. on the first Thursday following that feast. The central figure of the
event is a bearded horseman - a Tartar wearing pseudo-Oriental costume and
frolicking about on a hobby horse.
An Outline of the History of the Lajkonik Festival
The origins of this tradition are unknown, yet we do know that its lead
participants were the rafters1 working in the villages of Polwsie and Zwie-
rzyniec on the outskirts of the city. In the 13th or the 14th century the rafters
1 The rafters of Polwsie and Zwicrzyniec are often referred to as wl6czkowie in Polish.
3
established a brother
hood whose major form
of activity was floating
timber for the purposes
of the salt mines in Bo-
chnia and Wicliczka.
The earliest note about
the rafters appeared in
the document issued by
King Casimir the Great
in 1363. The brother
hood, referred to in the
documents as “congre
gation”, was long in
volved in the Corpus
Christi processions or
ganized by the Norbcr-
tine nuns at the Church
of the Holy Saviour
(Kosciol Najswi^tszego
Salwatora) in Zwierzy-
niec. The earliest men
tion evidencing this fact
dates back to June 13,
1700, when an entry was
made in the convent records about the rafters delivering their usual
performance after the Corpus Christi procession in Zwierzyniec2. The earliest
mention of the parade of the hobby horse of Zwierzyniec appeared in a note
from 1738 about a fight between rafters during a feast held at primate
Miernikiewicz’s place in Kazimierz (primate was the chief of the brotherhood)
after returning with the hobby horse from the celebration on the octave of
Corpus Christi. Apart from the lajkonik himself, the account of that event
describes rafters’ temperament as well:
*’ Zinkow J.: KrukcwJuepodania, legendy izwyczaje [ Krakow talcs, legends and customs] Krakow 2005, p. 198.
4
The complete Congregation of rafters appeared in the Main Market Square [...] to
take part in the procession, equipped with the banner, the hobby horse, the
emblem... and presumably with music. [They were] dressed in all their finery and
armed as if they were going to war, with standard hatchets at their sides, loaded
muskets on their shoulders, and the elders armed with their sabres as well. They
were lead by their primate wielding a mace. The second primate would order ‘fire
from all the brothers’ and the rafters would ‘fire as ordered’ ... As the procession
came to its end, the whole Congregation walked with the banner and the hobby
horse in their parade formation to primate Micrnikiewicz’s place in Kazimierz, for
that was where he resided’.
The aforesaid commotion be
gan during the feast at the pri
mate’s:
[...] the second primate [...) or
dered fire, apparently having
forgotten that he was inside
a room, and Ozurkiewicz, one
of the rafters, defied his order,
blaming it on the lack of gun
powder. Having heard that, the
second primate “got carried
away, suddenly rose from his
seat and addressed him as
follows: you hick, you fool, you
bonchcad... you serf, don’t you
dare confuse us” etc., while
another one, even more hot-
blooded than the first, “smash
ed [the rafter] in the face so
heavily that it made him fall
under the table”, and what
followed was general tumult4. The mace of the Congregation of Rafters, 18' cent.,
wood, gold-plated brass
Although no-one was killed during the fight, the case ended up in court.
‘ Grodecki R.: „Krwawy Lajkonik w 1738 r.” [The bloody lajkonik of 1738]. In: lltisirowany Kuner
Coduenny 1919, No. 172.
Ibidem. 5
Another trace of the lajkonik festival is the note in the convent records
from June 21, 1756, documenting the expenditure of “2 Polish zlotys for the
drum major with the hobby horse on the triumphal Sunday”5.
In the second half of the 18th century, mainly due to a decline in the
economic conditions triggered by the successive partitions of Poland, the
brotherhood of rafters gradually declined, and eventually after the third parti
tion it ceased to exist altogether. However, the lajkonik did not disappear. On the
contrary, in the course of time the frolic of the hobby horse delivered by rafters
during the Corpus Christi feast became so much fun that Bishop Jozef
Olechnowski (1735-1806) considered it incompatible with the solemnity of the
religious feast and issued an order in the May of 1787 that the brotherhoods and
the guilds should participate in the processions “devoid of inventive whims,
bizarre or excessively refined costumes, or such outfits that provoke laughter; the
dresses should promote Christian virtues and piety in line with the ideas and
regulations of the Church”1’. The hobby horse with its retinue were no longer
allowed into the Main Market Square in Krakow; having arrived from the con
vent courtyard to the whereabouts of Wislna Gate, the lajkonik would caper
about in front of Bishops’ Palace'. An evidence of that is reflected in the earliest
preserved description of the festival by
writer and publisher Konstanty Majera-
nowski (1787-1851). On June 9, 1820,
Majeranowski, signed by his pen name -
Pielgrzym z T^czyna (Pilgrim of Tqczyn)
- published an article titled “Konik”
[hobby horse] in the literary magazine
Pszczolka Krakowska [lit. “little bee
from Krakow”]:
[...] out on the plains on the outskirts of
Copper cauldron. Poland. 18* cent.. Krakow towards Zwicrzynicc, [...] on
copper, wood, leather
the second Thursday of Corpus Christi,
5 Zinkow J.: Krakowskie podania.... p. 198.
' Ibidem, p. 199.
The lajkonik reappeared on the Main Market Square only in 1849, upon special permit, on the occasion
of the march of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia through the city.
6
Jan Styfi, after a drawing by Henryk Pillati, Lajkonik, 1861, woodcut
many would gather to celebrate the feast of the hobby horse. [... ] A man dressed like
a Tartar, wearing a turban and yellow boots, with a huge mace in his hand, fakes
a gliding ride on a horse, though in fact he walks mounted on a splendidly orna
mented hobby horse, surrounded by police guards, to the sound of music, trumpets
and drums. Each time he jumps to this side or the other, several hundred people fall
into momentary confusion, and many of them climb onto the nearby roofs, fences,
trees and stones attracted by the turmoil and willing to see him despite the risk of
damage. This parade, which is among the most joyful and the oldest ones in Krakow,
proceeds as follows: as soon as the procession from St Mary’s Basilica rounds the
Main Square and reaches its end, the audience of all states, of any age and of both
sexes rush along Bracka, Wislna and Franciszkahska Streets to the broad plains
stretched behind Bishops’ Palace to get there before the congregation of rafters who
walk back from the church service slowly and in the traditional order. The
anticipated hobby horse emerges out there on the plains after a while, also walking
slowly with his sovereign retinue from the direction of Zwierzyniec to receive the
brotherhood whom he joins to proceed to the windows of the Bishop of Krakow in
order to pay him due homage by the triple wave of the banner”.
* Gawelck E: „Konik zwicrzyniecki” [The hobby horse of Zwierzyniec). In: Rocznik Krakowski 1928, pp.
132-133.
In 1843, an eye-witness of the ritual was Ambrozy Grabowski whose account
reflects well the idea of the frolicking by the hobby horse in front of Bishops’
Palace:
The crowd of the faithful was large. Their favourite hobby horse of Zwierzyniec
attracted to Nowy Swiat nearly half of the participants in the procession.
A fake Turk on a hobby horse with moving head attached to his belt, surrounded by
the music from Zwierzyniec, stepped out ahead of the company of rafters coming
back from the procession who had awaited him at the exit of Wislna Street, and
paraded along Nowy Swiat towards Zwierzyniec. Yet this time he skipped the cru
cial part of his performance: earlier the lajkonik would have chased individuals from
the surrounding crowd and bang their heads with his soft bat (mace) stuffed with fur,
hence the lenience of the hits, to the loud laughter of the audience, while now he
walked slowly with a wooden mace in his hand, no chasing nor banging the boys’.
In the successive years those who watched and described the
frolicking included Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Kazimierz Wladyslaw Wojcicki
' Grabowski A.: Dawnezwyczaje Krukowskie (Old Krakow customs). Krakow 2fX)8, p. 82.
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