In a land of lakes, forests, and gentle hills by the Baltic Sea, south and west of Gdańsk, live the Kashubians, the last surviving branch of the Pomeranian Slavs who once peopled the whole southern Baltic coast. Closely tied to the Poles yet speaking a distinct Slavic language and famed for their vivid embroidery, they have preserved a language and identity of their own on the northern edge of Poland.

This is the story of who the Kashubians are: where they came from, how they lived by lake and sea, what they believe, and how they preserved a Slavic language and identity in the borderland between the Polish and German worlds. It is a tale of the last Baltic Slavs, of colorful embroidery and lakeside villages, of a people whose language, faith, and folk art carry their heritage into the present day.

The Kashubians on Film

Contents

• Origins
• The Name
• The Language
• The Homeland
• The Old Way of Life
• Society and Community
• Religion and Belief
• Traditions
• Crafts
• Food
• Festivals
• History
• Today

Origins

The Kashubians are a West Slavic people of northern Poland, living in the region of Kashubia, a land of lakes, forests, and gentle hills south and west of the city of Gdańsk, reaching to the Baltic coast. Closely related to the Poles, they speak a distinct Slavic language and are counted as the last surviving remnant of the once wider Pomeranian Slavs.

The ancestors of the Kashubians were among the Slavic tribes who settled the southern shore of the Baltic in the early Middle Ages, the Pomeranians, whose name means those who dwell by the sea. Over the centuries most of the Pomeranian Slavs were absorbed by their German or Polish neighbors, but in the region of Kashubia a Slavic people survived, keeping their own speech and identity.

Kashubia lay in the borderlands between the Polish and German worlds, and its history was shaped by this position, ruled at various times by Pomeranian dukes, by the Teutonic Knights, by Poland, and by Prussia and Germany. Through all these changes the Kashubians preserved their distinct Slavic language and traditions, above all in the countryside and the villages.

From these Pomeranian Slavic roots, in their land of lakes and forests, grew the distinct Kashubian people, the last of the Baltic Slavs, closely tied to the Poles yet holding to a language and identity of their own. Small in number and long overlooked, they preserved a strong sense of their heritage as a distinct people of the Polish Baltic.

The Name

The Kashubians call themselves Kaszëbi and their language and region Kaszëbë, in Polish Kaszubi and Kaszuby. The origin of the name is uncertain, connected in various ways to old words or garments of the region, but it has long identified this Slavic people of the Polish Baltic and their homeland.

The Kashubians are the last surviving branch of the Pomeranian Slavs, and are sometimes called by the older regional names as well, reflecting their descent from the Slavic peoples who once inhabited the whole southern Baltic coast. The name Kashubia came to stand for the land where this Slavic people survived.

The symbol of the Kashubians is the black griffin on a gold field, the old emblem of Pomerania, which appears on the flag and coat of arms of Kashubia and is proudly displayed as a mark of identity. This griffin links the Kashubians to the medieval dukes of Pomerania and to their heritage as the last of the Baltic Slavs.

The Kashubians are today recognized in Poland as a community with its own regional language, and though they are Polish citizens and largely see themselves as part of the Polish nation, they hold a strong sense of a distinct Kashubian identity. The name Kaszëbi stands for a proud people of the Polish Baltic, heirs of the Pomeranian Slavs.

The Language

The Kashubian language is central to the identity of the Kashubians, a West Slavic language closely related to Polish and, more distantly, to the other Slavic tongues, and descended from the speech of the medieval Pomeranian Slavs. Whether Kashubian is a distinct language or a dialect of Polish was long debated, but it is now generally recognized as a language in its own right.

Kashubian shares much with Polish, so that speakers of each can find a good deal that is familiar, yet it has many distinctive features of sound, grammar, and vocabulary, some of them preserving older Slavic forms or reflecting the influence of the region’s history, including borrowings from German. It has several regional varieties across Kashubia.

For much of its history Kashubian was above all a spoken language of the countryside, while Polish and German served for writing, church, and official life. In the nineteenth century a movement arose to write, cultivate, and defend the Kashubian language, led by figures such as Florian Ceynowa and later the writer Aleksander Majkowski, whose great novel gave Kashubian a literary monument.

Today Kashubian is recognized in Poland as a regional language, taught in schools, used in some media and church services, and cultivated by cultural organizations, a rare success among the smaller Slavic tongues. Though under pressure from Polish, the Kashubian language endures as the clearest mark of the identity of this people of the Polish Baltic.

The Homeland

The homeland of the Kashubians is Kashubia, a region of northern Poland stretching from the Baltic coast near Gdańsk southward and westward into a land of lakes, forests, and gentle hills. It is one of the most beautiful and distinctive of the Polish regions, its landscape shaped by the ice ages into a country of countless lakes and wooded moraine hills.

The heart of the region is the Kashubian Lake District, sometimes called Kashubian Switzerland for its hilly, lake-strewn scenery, a land of clear lakes, forests, and small villages that is among the loveliest in Poland. To the north, Kashubia reaches the Baltic Sea, with its coast, dunes, and the long spit of the Hel Peninsula.

This land of lakes and forests shaped the traditional life of the Kashubians, a world of farming, fishing, and forestry, with the great port city of Gdańsk on its edge. The region’s many lakes and its stretch of coast gave the Kashubians a strong bond with the water, whether the inland lakes or the Baltic Sea.

The towns of the region, from Kartuzy and Wejherowo to the villages of the lake district, and the great neighboring city of Gdańsk, carry the life and history of the Kashubians, while the lakes, forests, and coast preserve the traditional character of the land. This lovely country of lakes and forests by the Baltic is the homeland at the heart of Kashubian identity.

The Old Way of Life

For most of their history the Kashubians were a people of farmers, fishers, and foresters, living in the villages of their land of lakes and woods by the Baltic. Farming on the often poor, sandy soils of the region, along with the raising of livestock, formed the basis of the traditional economy in the inland villages.

The lakes and the sea gave the other great element of Kashubian life, and fishing was central, both on the many inland lakes of the region and, along the coast and the Hel Peninsula, on the Baltic Sea. The Kashubian fishermen of the coast, with their boats and their distinctive way of life, were a notable part of the people.

The Kashubian village, with its cottages and its church, set amid the fields, forests, and lakes, was the center of life, and the communities were bound together by kinship, custom, and the strong Catholic faith. The seasonal round of farming, fishing, and the work of the forest set the rhythm of the year, and the traditional wooden and cottage architecture gave the villages their character.

This world of village, farm, lake, and sea, though much changed by modern times, is remembered and preserved in the open-air museums of the region, such as the great skansen at Wdzydze, and remains close to the heart of Kashubian identity. The traditions of the land and the water, the crafts, and the customs of the villages are cherished as the roots of the people.

Society and Community

Traditional Kashubian society was built around the family, the village, and the Catholic church, in a rural world of farming, fishing, and forestry. Close family bonds, attachment to the land and the local community, and the strong Catholic faith shaped the character of the Kashubians, along with a famous industriousness, thrift, and stubbornness.

The Kashubians were overwhelmingly a rural people of farmers and fishers, and their identity was carried above all by the village and the countryside, and by the strong bond with their language and their faith. Living in the borderland between the Polish and German worlds, and under German and Prussian rule for long periods, the Kashubians held to their Slavic speech and their sense of being a distinct people.

A strong regional identity and attachment to the homeland, its language, and its traditions marked Kashubian society, and in the modern era this found expression in cultural and later regional movements to defend and promote the Kashubian language and heritage, above all through organizations such as the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association.

Shaped by their land of lakes and sea, their borderland position, and their attachment to language and faith, the Kashubians developed a strong sense of themselves as a distinct people, even as they came to see themselves as part of the wider Polish nation. The values of family, faith, hard work, and attachment to the homeland remain important features of Kashubian life today.

Religion and Belief

The Kashubians are a strongly Roman Catholic people, and the Catholic faith has long been central to their life, identity, and calendar, as it is for the Poles with whom they share it. Religion was woven into the rhythm of village life, and the church stood at the heart of the community, its festivals and customs shaping the year.

The region is rich in churches, chapels, and places of pilgrimage, and none is more important than the great Calvary of Wejherowo, a complex of chapels set in the hills that has been a major place of Kashubian pilgrimage for centuries, drawing the faithful to walk its stations in devotion. Such pilgrimages are a characteristic expression of Kashubian faith.

The strong Catholicism of the Kashubians was also, through the long periods of German and Prussian rule, bound up with the defense of their Slavic identity, for faith and language together marked the Kashubians as distinct from their often Protestant German rulers. Religion and identity were closely linked in the Kashubian story.

The Catholic faith remains an important part of Kashubian identity and culture, its festivals, pilgrimages, and customs woven into the life of the people, and Kashubian is even used in some church services as part of the cultivation of the language. The Calvary of Wejherowo and the many churches of the region are treasures of the Kashubian religious heritage.

Traditions

Kashubian traditions are rich in music, embroidery, folk custom, and the celebrations of the seasons and the church year, and they are cherished as expressions of a distinct regional identity. The strong survival of the Kashubian language, together with these folk traditions, has kept the culture of the region vividly alive.

The most famous of Kashubian folk arts is the colorful embroidery, worked in a distinctive palette of blues, reds, yellows, greens, and black, in floral patterns that adorn cloth, costume, and household objects, one of the best-known symbols of the region. Kashubian music, too, is distinctive, with unusual folk instruments such as the burczybas, a friction drum, and the devil’s fiddle used in the lively village bands.

The traditional costumes of Kashubia, worn at festivals and important occasions, and the customs surrounding the great moments of life and the seasons, form part of the rich folk heritage. Old customs of the Christmas and Easter season, of the harvest, and of the church calendar were kept in the villages, blending Catholic faith with folk tradition.

The literary heritage of the Kashubians, above all the great novel of Aleksander Majkowski about the wandering figure of Remus, along with the folk tales, legends, and songs of the region, carries the spirit of the people. These traditions of embroidery, music, custom, and story are cherished and celebrated as vivid expressions of the Kashubian people.

Crafts

The crafts of the Kashubians grew from a land of lakes, forests, and farms, and from the tastes and traditions of the people, and they are famed above all for their distinctive folk art. The greatest and most recognizable of Kashubian crafts is the colorful embroidery, worked in a characteristic set of colors and floral patterns that has become a symbol of the whole region.

This Kashubian embroidery, developed and cultivated in schools such as that of Żukowo, adorns tablecloths, costumes, and countless objects, its bright blues, reds, greens, yellows, and black instantly recognizable and prized far beyond Kashubia. The making of the traditional costumes, richly decorated with this embroidery, was a valued skill of the women.

Pottery is another celebrated Kashubian craft, above all the distinctive ceramics associated with families such as the Neclowie, decorated with the same characteristic Kashubian motifs, along with the making of the famous Kashubian snuffboxes of horn. Woodworking, in a land of forests, produced the houses, furniture, tools, and the folk instruments of the region.

The crafts of the lakes and the sea, above all boatbuilding and the making of fishing gear, served the fishers of the region, while horn-working, weaving, and other village crafts served daily life. These traditions, above all the famous embroidery and pottery, are cherished and kept alive by craftspeople and folk organizations as a valued part of Kashubian culture.

Food

Kashubian cuisine is the hearty, homely food of a farming and fishing people of the Polish Baltic, closely related to the wider Polish and northern cooking but with specialties of its own drawn from the lakes, the sea, the forests, and the fields. Potatoes, fish, dairy, pork, mushrooms, and berries form the foundation of a simple and filling cuisine.

The potato holds a central place, and dishes of potato in many forms, including the fried potato pancakes and dumplings of the region, are staples of the Kashubian table. Fish, from the many lakes and from the Baltic Sea, is a characteristic food, above all the eel, the herring, and other fish prepared fresh, smoked, or pickled.

The forests provide mushrooms and berries gathered in season, important in the traditional diet, while pork, dairy, and the produce of the farm and garden round out the cuisine. Hearty soups, stews, and the filled dumplings shared with the wider Polish world are characteristic, warming food suited to the northern climate.

Food is bound up with the customs and festivals of the Catholic year, above all the meatless Christmas Eve supper of many dishes, rich in fish and other symbolic foods, and the celebrations of Easter and the harvest. Rooted in the lakes, the sea, the forests, and the fields, Kashubian cuisine is a homely and cherished expression of the region’s way of life.

Festivals

The festivals of the Kashubians blend the Catholic calendar with the folk customs of the region and the celebration of a distinct regional identity, and they are central to Kashubian life and culture. Religious feasts, pilgrimages, seasonal customs, and modern cultural gatherings mark the year in Kashubia.

The great religious observances of the Catholic year, above all the pilgrimages to the Calvary of Wejherowo and the other holy places of the region, and the feasts of Christmas, Easter, and the patron saints, are central to the traditional festival calendar, marked with processions, devotions, and their own customs and foods.

In modern times the Kashubians celebrate their identity above all through the great annual gathering known as the Zjazd Kaszubów, the Kashubian Congress, which brings together Kashubians from across the region and beyond in a joyful display of their language, music, costume, and pride, held each year in a different Kashubian town.

Alongside these, folk festivals of music, dance, and craft, and the customs of the seasons and the church year, keep the traditions of the region alive and celebrate the culture of the people. These festivals, blending Catholic faith, folk custom, and the assertion of a distinct identity, are vivid and cherished expressions of the Kashubian people.

History

The history of the Kashubians is that of the last surviving branch of the Pomeranian Slavs, who settled the southern Baltic coast in the early Middle Ages. As most of the Pomeranian Slavs were absorbed by their German or Polish neighbors over the centuries, the Kashubians in their land of lakes and forests preserved their Slavic speech and identity.

Through the medieval and early modern periods, Kashubia was ruled at various times by the dukes of Pomerania, the Teutonic Knights, the Kingdom of Poland, and later Prussia, and its people lived in the borderland between the Polish and German worlds. Under long periods of German and Prussian rule, the Kashubians faced pressure to assimilate, yet held to their language and faith.

The nineteenth century brought a Kashubian awakening, led by figures such as Florian Ceynowa, who worked to write and defend the Kashubian language, and later the writer Aleksander Majkowski, whose great novel about the figure of Remus became a literary monument of the people. This movement gave the Kashubians a stronger sense of their distinct identity.

In the twentieth century the Kashubians shared in the turbulent history of the region, suffering under the German occupation during the Second World War, when their distinct identity made them targets, before their homeland became firmly part of Poland after the war. In recent decades the Kashubian language has won recognition as a regional language, and a strong movement has arisen to cultivate and celebrate the Kashubian heritage.

Today

Today the Kashubians are a people of several hundred thousand, living in their homeland in the Pomeranian region of northern Poland, in and around the great city of Gdańsk and across the lake district and the coast. They are Polish citizens, and most see themselves as part of the Polish nation, while holding a strong sense of a distinct Kashubian regional identity.

Modern Kashubia is a prosperous and attractive region, its beautiful landscape of lakes, forests, and coast drawing many visitors, and its economy tied to the wider prosperity of the Gdańsk area, one of the important regions of Poland. The Kashubians take an active part in the life of the nation while cherishing their own heritage.

Kashubian identity has enjoyed a strong revival in recent decades, with the recognition of Kashubian as a regional language taught in schools and used in media and church, a flourishing of Kashubian culture, music, and literature, and the great annual congress and other celebrations of the people. Pride in the flag, the language, the embroidery, and the traditions of Kashubia runs deep.

Through the long centuries since the Pomeranian Slavs settled the Baltic coast, the Kashubians have preserved a distinct identity as the last of the Baltic Slavs, holding to their language, their faith, and their bond with their land of lakes and sea. A proud people of the Polish Baltic, attached to Kaszëbë and their heritage, the Kashubians remain one of the distinctive peoples of Europe.

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