Between November 8 and 11, eleven residents of Bolesławiec, including three female students from the Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących i Zawodowych im. majora Henryka Sucharskiego in Bolesławiec (Marcelina Razik, Marta Wojtarowicz and Aneta Drozdek), as well as students from the Zespół Szkół Elektronicznych, Gimnazjum Samorządowe nr 2 im. Polaków zesłanych na Sybir and Publiczne Gimnazjum Zakonu Pijarów im. ks. Stanisława Konarskiego, took part in ceremonies marking Poland’s Independence Day in the Vilnius Region.
The trip to Lithuania was one of the elements of the “Save Your Great-Grandfather’s Grave from Oblivion” project. Young people from Ruszów and students of the University of Wrocław also took part in the ceremonies.
“The celebrations there look completely different,” says scout Aneta Drozdek. What certainly distinguishes Independence Day in the Vilnius Region is a run that has been held for 21 years. The scouts start running at 5:30 a.m. They have to cover 60 km from the place where Józef Piłsudski was born to the Rasos Cemetery, where his heart is buried. “The participants ran with a 123-metre flag,” says Aneta. “It was the first time I had encountered anything like that; it was a very moving experience.”
Marcelina Razik: “They are two completely different worlds. In Poland, we do not celebrate this day nearly as solemnly. There, people feel this holiday with their whole being. I did not expect that one could be so proud of being Polish abroad.”
Marta Wojtarowicz: “For us, November 11 is often primarily a day off work. There, everyone experiences it completely differently. This holiday is very important to them.”
Interestingly, as the female participants in the trip say, Polish can be heard everywhere in the Vilnius Region—in homes as well as in shops. “During my three-day stay, I did not hear a single word of Lithuanian,” smiles Barbara Smoleńska, coordinator of the “Save Your Great-Grandfather’s Grave from Oblivion” project on behalf of the Bolesławiec ZSOiZ. “One of the University of Wrocław students, who is learning the language, was very happy that he would be able to speak Lithuanian. He did not get the chance.”
There was no shortage of emotion and contact with history—with a capital “H.” The residents of Bolesławiec visited places associated with Marshal Józef Piłsudski, including a tree in Zułów planted in his honor at the place where he was born. They also visited Vilnius, where they had the opportunity to see the building in which the Philomaths and Philarets were imprisoned, as well as the Konrad’s Cell Museum, named after a character from Part III of Mickiewicz’s “Forefathers’ Eve”.
“The marshal’s cult is very strong there,” adds Barbara Smoleńska. “The borders have shifted, but the residents of the Vilnius Region still feel Polish.”