When Birds Wed
The Sorbian People And Their Unique Festivity
In the spirit of today’s spotlighted Slavs, I bid everyone: witajće (if you’re in or around Budyšin) and witatej (if you’re in or around Chóśebuz).
The Sorbs - inhabitants of the Lusatian region of Germany, once known as Wends and speakers of the fourth West Slavic language - are the Slavic culture most at threat today. With around 50,000 speakers, the forces of globalization pose a great threat to their beautiful language which could well go extinct in our lifetimes.
The Sorbian language manifests itself in two dialects: the more numerous, Czech-resembling Upper Sorbian, and the less numerous, more Polish-resembling Lower Sorbian. While this is a testament to the richness of such a small language, it also poses a challenge to those few who want to learn the language: should they choose Lower Sorbian or Upper Sorbian? We here at Černobog's Shadow do not stress a preference, except that the language needs the assistance of all Slavic advocates out there.
The Sorbs are a historically quiet nation. It was only recently, for instance - to the shock of the German majority, who automatically took the gesture as an insult - that the Sorbs considered having their own political party. Very little is known about them even among other Slavs, though many Poles and Czechs will at least have heard of them.
But for those who do know about them, the Sorbs are a powerful symbol. For they are the last of the numerous Western Slavs that once dominated the region a thousand years ago: in particular the Elbe River valleys, the island of Rugia (Rugen in German) and the area that is today the German capital of Berlin. (Slavic etymology can still be found in towns of the region) It is the Western Slavs who feature most in the numerous (usually) German chronologies of the Ancient Slavs, giving them the most direct descendance from what little we understand of the Ancient Slavic essence. (At least in the West)
On a side note, it is their history that gives at least a kernel of truth to the name “Reclaimed Lands,” used to refer to the area Poland received at the end of World War II in “exchange” for the Soviet Union annexing Eastern Poland. For when Poland “regained” these lands, the ancestral lands of many of these ancient, now-forgotten Slavic tribes was reincorporated into Greater Slavia. As was Poland’s forgotten history in the Silesian region and the primeval/pagan lands of the Slavs around the Santok settlement, now in Lubuskie and formerly a part of Brandenburg.
For their part, the Sorbs generally get along with everyone in close proximity to Lusatia. There is a rich history of Sorbian-Polish cultural exchange and an equally rich history of Sorbian-Czech exchange. As far as the Germans are concerned, I have not heard of any real estrangement between Sorbs and Germans on the social level. But history has not always been kind to the Sorbs. While they did not (arguably) share in the greatest of suffering as their brethren further east, the Sorbs did not fare well under Adolf Hitler’s “Fuhrership.” But ironically, the Communist support for minority languages meant that the Sorbs - culturally speaking - thrived when Lusatia was a part of East Germany. The best-known Sorbian author outside the region, Jurij Brězan, wrote at this time. (He wrote in both German and Upper Sorbian; the few translations into English, however, are from German)
The relationship with Germany is one of ignorance on the other side, as Germans very frequently have no idea an indigenous Slavic minority lives in the Bundesrepublik. (The Sorbs are, in fact, the only indigenous minority in today’s Germany) Politically, this means that while the Sorbs are in a position where they can practice their culture with little to no interference per se, they have no political voice. For instance, many Sorbian villages in the Lower Silesian area in particular were destroyed for mining in the years following the annexation of East Germany with no regard for the cultural landscape or the people who lived there. Having no voice, this desecration of the regional landscape is an unknown calamity.
Today, the Sorbs have two cultural capitals: Budyšin (Bautzen in German) for the Upper Sorbs in the German region of Saxony. And Chóśebuz (Cottbus in German) for the Lower Sorbs in the German region of Brandenburg. While any interested Slavophile should visit both towns in order to see all the museums and so forth, the best chances of hearing the language (apart from special events) are to go to the surrounding villages, all of which have bilingual signs.
Culturally, Sorbian mythology is best represented by the figure of Krabat who bears a resemblance to Poland’s Pan Twardowski. But calendrically, the Sorbs are most culturally unique in their celebration of the Bird’s Wedding. Ptači kwas in Upper Sorbian. And Ptaškowa swajźba in Lower Sorbian.
The festivity is held every year on January 25th. (The same day, incidentally, as Robert Burns Day)
To celebrate Ptaškowa swajźba in your own home, the following rituals must be practised.
The day before (or when you’re free), bake cookies that are in the shape of birds. If you like other kinds of sweets and know how to 1) make them, or 2) acquire them in the shape of birds, that’s also fine.
On the morning of January 25th, place a selection of these sweets on a plate. Take them to the window; open your window and place them there. (This is most ideal, of course, in a village or if you live somewhere in or close to nature)
Allow the birds to have their fill. After all, nesting season is beginning. The birds must get married so they can begin their business as early as possible and fill the world with lots of little birdies, more nature and more music.
At some point during the day, the children will perform a play in which a magpie and a raven will get married.
The symbolism of this festivity represents all that is beautiful about folklore: a deep connection to nature, cultural idiosyncrasy, familial and social closeness and the beauty of humanity in general.
Where I live, a few pigeons like to hang out by my window. I wonder if they’re single?
I wish I had known this when I visited Cottbus some years ago.