Wedding of the Weddings
2022 Wedding of the Weddings
2022
The 28th wedding of weddings took place in Łopoczno, a village on the Vistula. The accommodation granted us the "campfire of love". The name may sound incomprehensible, but it is the name of a French organization oriented towards offering retreat houses for retreats. The retreat house in Łopoczno is located on the outskirts of the village Łopoczno, surrounded by a forest on two sides and adjacent to a nature reserve on the Vistula. In short, pure nature. The building consists of a hotel and a small church, and is equipped with several conference halls and a restaurant. This was sufficient to carry out the event, since the main points of the program were church services and lectures. But out of about 100 participants, 40 were children and young people, so a separate program was also provided for them. The program also included excursions, a performance by a local folk ensemble and an alcohol-free wedding dance night. The lectures were given by eminent representatives of Polish society, including the Archbishop of Lublin, auxiliary bishop from Łomża, priest Wladyslaw Zazel, director of the Lublin branch of the Institute of National Remembrance and others.
The four days were once again proof that you can spend your free time in Poland in a variety of ways without alcohol. There are enough themes and sights to keep you busy.
On Thursday we listened to a lecture about the history of Poland from the local point of view of the Lublin people. Certain common falsifications of Polish history were exposed. Poland has practically never been an aggressor country. The wars waged were exclusively defensive wars. The enlargement of the territory of the country occurred through marriages of the ruling kings. In addition, Poland was always a uniform country, in Poland people never thought of the small and large homeland, there was always only one homeland. It was funny and at the same time interesting to hear that hygiene and abstinence played a fundamental role in Polish history. The young Polish queen liked Prince Jagiełło better than the Western princes because he washed himself and therefore did not stink and did not drink alcohol and therefore did not have bad breath. And so there was a marriage that brought a new epoch in Polish history. By the way, the lecturer had a non-alcoholic wedding. In the evening, after the evening mass, a folk ensemble from the neighboring village played and sang for us. The children couldn't help but dance to the folk music. The lyrics revealed some folk wisdom, including that it's not worth engaging in sex outside of marriage.
On Friday there was a big trip to Kazimierz Dolny. This old town is a monument to Poland's former wealth and a witness to Swedish barbarism. We heard a morning mass in the church, which houses the oldest organ in Poland. We heard an organ concert presenting the quality of that organ. Then we toured the city with a tourist guide. Finally, we held a Stations of the Cross service through the streets of the city. In the afternoon we had a trip on the local narrow gauge railway.
On Saturday there were lectures on the current alcohol problems in Poland and on the work of the "campfire of love". Problems with alcohol in Poland result mainly from a massive advertising campaign by alcohol producers. Poles have a natural tendency towards abstinence. This was demonstrated in a large-scale experiment involving millions of people. The alcohol propaganda, however, contaminates the culture and introduces compulsion to drink. In the afternoon we cheered on the cyclists of the Tour de Pologne, who drove through Łopoczno.
In the evening we went to Piotrawin to hear a wedding anniversary mass there. Afterwards there was an alcohol-free wedding ball. With a beautiful non-alcoholic wedding cake.
On Sunday after morning mass we said goodbye. You hardly noticed that time had passed. We still had so much to say to each other. So until the next meeting. Let us make here a side note in passing: Ecology is the leading keyword for a hundred years or so. Though we observe in the recent time a movement towards absurd claims like that of “harmful” CO2, it is to be stressed that restriction of emission of really poisonous substances from industrial production into environment makes sense and should be welcomed and pursued. We spent a couple of days in the middle of “pure nature” because we are the leaders of protecting the natural environment: we celebrated natural weddings, that is weddings without alcohol. The Polish word “wesele” standing for wedding can be translated also as joy. We celebrated the natural joy, opposing the questionable “tradition” of chemically controlled joy (chemically that is by alcohol). So one can say that a non-alcoholic wedding is the natural wedding, the ecological wedding.
We would like to thank everyone who contributed to this event. God may bless them.