POJANA folklore ensemble

Many villages in the vicinity of Dzierżoniów are home to the Čadec highlanders. They are descendants of highlanders from the Zywiec and Cieszyn areas, who left their homeland as early as the 16th century, moving to the area around the town of Čadca (Čadca in today's Slovakia). At the beginning of the 19th century, they set off with a wave of settlers colonizing backward areas of Carpathian Bukovina. There, in the eastern borderlands of the Austro-Hungarian empire, they established Polish villages. They did not assimilate with the local population. For decades they cultivated the traditions, dialect and customs of their fathers. In the 1930s, the Polish community in Romania was estimated at about 80,000 people. During World War II, Poles from Bukovina were conscripted into the Romanian army, an ally of the Wehrmacht. Many men did not return from the war, dying on the Eastern Front or ending up in Soviet gulags. Villages struggled to recover from wartime destruction. In 1945, envoys appeared in Polish settlements urging people to return to the country. Many families took advantage of this opportunity. They were directed to post-German Pomerania and Silesia, which had been granted to Poland. The settlers from the Bukovina village of Poiana Micului live in Pilawa Dolna. Despite their tortuous history, they continue to cultivate the customs of their ancestors from Zywiec and Cieszyn. They founded the “Pojana” Chadec Highlanders Song and Dance Ensemble in 1958. The domain of the older members of the group is singing, the youngsters excel in dancing. “Pojana” can be seen every year at the International Folklore Festival “Bukovina Encounters,” held in Jastrow, northern Wielkopolska

The group rehearses every Monday in a room at 28 Main Street in Pilava Dolna. When planning a trip to the area for the weekend, it is worth seeing and listening to how the Chadec highlanders in the Sudetenland dance, sing and “create” using the speech of their ancestors.