30th Polish National Meeting of Couples Who Had Non-Alcoholic Wedding Celebrations

Wedding of the Weddings 2024

Kosze`cin (Poland), 8-11.8.2024

Wedding of the Weddings is about the essentials of the existence of human race. Without marriages there are no children, without children there is no future. One may say that there are so many children born outside of marriage in Europe. Really? Why do the European countries need then immigrants? It is because too few children are born if the births are given predominantly outside of marriage.

Some musicians sang in the past: "All we need is love". Well, the claim is not wrong, if you understand love appropriately, not as a synonym of "licentiousness". The true love between a man and a woman is one leading and pertaining within a monogamous indissoluble marriage. Recall the words of Jesus Christ: (Matthew 19:4-6 ) "God having created from the beginning 'made them male and female, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’ "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."

So the marriage is a big event for human society. Therefore it is celebrated during a wedding party. But how it should be celebrated? According to St. Paul (1 Corinthians 5:11) by a non-alcoholic wedding. ("With such a [drunkard] you are not even to eat.") And this is right so as the participants of the wedding party should bewitnesses to the marriage. But how can you rely on a drunk witness?

So Wedding of the Weddings is the event of the type "long-weekend-for-future". Or "marry once, celebrate the event with a wedding party each year.". What is attractive about this concept is that the subsequent wedding parties are pretty inexpensive, as the guests are the couples married without alcohol that are celebrating their weddings together. And it is pretty impressive to a have a four day long wedding party. Each year at a different location. For 30 years in a row.

This year, the Wedding of the Weddings was celebrated in Kosze`cin, a small village in the Silesia region. Koszęcin is mentioned in the chronicles as early as the 13th century (a record of collecting tithes from a village belonging to the Krakow Church in 1277). A wooden castle of the Opole Piasts, which no longer exists, was also built at this time. During the time of Filip von Rauthen, the Koszęcin Castle, which we can admire today, was visited by King Jan III Sobieski while he was marching to the besieged Vienna to rescue it from the Turks (1683). In 1829, Ludwig Filip von Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen began rebuilding the castle in the late classicist style. The wall paintings, some elements of the room decoration and the grave inscriptions in the castle chapel date from this period.

One of the unique works of Polish literature was created in Koszęcin by Walenty Roździeński (ca. 1560 - ca. 1621), a metallurgist and craftsman as well as a poet and writer. It describes the state of metallurgy and mining at his time. The piece was created thanks to the patronage of the owner of Koszęcin, Andrzej Kochcicki, who invited Roździeński to the palace at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The classicist castle and park complex from the 17th century has served as the headquarters of the Śląsk singing and dancing ensemble since 1953. The palace has three large wings. Around it there is a beautiful English-style landscape park full of linden trees, maples, chestnut trees and various exotic tree species. A small pond with a picturesque fountain adds extra charm.

This castle was the location of some of the program items for this year's Wedding of Weddings. On Friday, after breakfast, we visited the castle. We walked through historic palace interiors, the chapel and the tower. We split into two interchangeable groups – one for sightseeing, the other for ethnographic workshops. In the early days of its existence, Koszęcin Castle functioned as a castle, but after reconstruction it served as a palace. After the Second World War it became the headquarters of the Śląsk Ensemble. The ensemble currently encompasses 150 artists (singers, dancers and musicians) and the same number of supportive employees (singing and dancing teachers, choreographers and screenwriters, seamstresses, cooks, mechanics, accountants, drivers, teachers, masseurs, rehabilitators, etc.). The band travels through Poland in four busses of their own, flies around the world (USA, Japan) and gives an average of one concert every three days. An artist's work is hard. The interior of the palace is beautiful and stylish. We saw the Green Room, the Red Room, the Fireplace Room, the Ballroom, etc. and went to the terrace where we had a view of the 40-acre park.

In ethnographic workshops we learn the language of the traditional costumes of White, Black (where Koszęcin is) and Green Silesia. We learn that the woman's wedding outfit was black and she was usually buried in it. A married woman's number of buttons reflected her marital experience, a man's his age. The elements of a bachelor's outfit, sewn by his mother, spoke about his character traits (generous or stingy, stubborn or gentle, etc.). A Facebook profile was not required. The status of the courtship and the willingness to propose marriage were also elements of the outfit, so they were easy to recognize. The festive outfits were quite heavy (about a dozen kilos), but also expensive. We also learned about the language of folk dances, which also played a role in the marriage process. But what was most striking about these folk customs? Focus on marriage. There could be no question of fornication.

On Saturday around noon we went back to Koszęcin Palace to watch the traditional horse-drawn carriage competition, organized and sponsored by the Śląsk ensemble. The moderators explained the nature of the carriages, the type of horses and the costumes of the driver and passengers. After the competition, several couples from the Wedding of Weddings had the opportunity to take part as passengers in a carriage parade through the streets of Koszęcin. It was also an opportunity for us to walk through the castle park, where horse-drawn carriages passed by. We were in the castle complex again in the afternoon, after Holy Mass, to listen to a one-hour concert by the orchestra of the “Śląsk” singing and dancing ensemble. It was a real feast for the ears.

So the cultural life of this small Polish typical village proved to be very rich and fascinating and it was just a very good point for the aristocratically styled wedding celebration that we had during this event. It is worth recalling that Polish noblemen weddings were not just dancing parties but were accompanied by artistic performances, excursions etc. Just like the Wedding of the Weddings meetings. Spiritual part was provided by the famous Bishop Bronakowski, who read the Saturday Mass, and by Most Reverent Pater Zązel who read the Masses the other days, as well as by Sister Anna Mroczek CSA, PhD. Sister of The Angels who had two lectures.

But of course the dancing party itself was not missing. On Saturday evening the wedding parade of Wedding of the Weddings was marching through the streets of the village to a Rubine restaurant. The first dance was clearly the Polonaise, the national dance of Poland. The participants danced and ate till early morning hours.