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Publikacja / The Empty Night ritual in the life of modern , Publication Gustin Masa, Wyszogrodzka-Liberadzka Natalia Adres publikacji w Repozytorium URL / https://repozytorium.bg.ug.edu.pl/info/article/UOG71232c35c6df4880a3ad53df615a7735/ Publication address in Repository Data opublikowania w 4 sie 2021 Repozytorium / Deposited in Repository on Rodzaj licencji / Type Dozwolony uytek of licence Gustin Masa, Wyszogrodzka-Liberadzka Natalia: The Empty Night ritual in the life of Cytuj t wersj / modern Kashubians, Between the Worlds, Sofia: Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Cite this Studies with Ethnographic Museum Bulgarian Academy of Sciences; Paradigma, no. 2, version 2020, pp. 325-343

THE EMPTY NIGHT RITUAL IN THE LIFE OF MODERN KASHUBIANS

Maša Guštin & Natalia Wyszogrodzka-Liberadzka

Abstract: Empty Night (Pustô noc) is the Kashubian name for the ritual that takes place on the last night before the funeral of a deceased person when people gather in the dead man’s house to pray. After praying the rosary, they stay to chant special religious songs and watch over them until the morning. According to folk beliefs of the Kashubian region, the deceased stays permanently in the vicinity of his household until the funeral. When farewelled improperly, a person can return in the form of a demon/ghoul (wieszczi, òpi). Therefore, a prayer for the dead secures the peace of the living. The most common explanation for a modern man, who is not so keen on believing in supernatural/magical aspects of life, is that the repetition and monotony of singing bring relief to the participants of an Empty Night Ritual. The ritual, being gradually forgotten in modern times, has been recorded on the pages of belles-lettres and ethnographic books, depicted in documentary films and theatrical events. Additional material was collected from interviews with participants and eyewitnesses of such events. Keywords: Empty Night, Kashubian Custom, Death Rites, Kashubian demonology

Kashubia (Kaszëbë, Polish: Kaszuby) is an area in the historic Eastern region of northwestern . Located west of Gdańsk (inclusive of all but the easternmost district) it is inhabited by the Kashubian ethnic group. Kashubian is a West Slavic language belonging to the Lechitic group of languages of northern Poland and is thought to be a variation of the original language. Kashubians enjoy legal protection in Poland as an ethnic minority. This is one of the most diverse regions in Poland when culture is concerned1. Pustô noc (Empty Night) is an unusual and still vivid, although gradually overlooked custom in the Kashubian village. It is the last night before the funeral which takes place in the house of the deceased. The ritual is becoming increasingly rare, however occasionally, at the

1 For more information, see for e.g.: Borzyszkowski, 2005, The Kashubs, Pomerania and Gdansk or the Internet page www.rastko.net/rastko-ka/.

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request of the family or of the deceased themselves (in their will), the funeral company brings the coffin with the deceased to their house so that the Empty Night can take place (Kozłowska, 2017). The ritual is only intended for adults, never for children (Treder, 2002: 137). Its name probably derives from the emptiness that remains after the death of a community member (Młyńska, 2011a), which means their absence in the common prayers. The guests begin the ritual by saying the rosary and then pray for the deceased. Afterwards, they stay in the house of mourning, singing special Empty Night songs led by the singer/orant or a group of singers. The family of the deceased usually prepares abundant refreshments (App. 1: Kotłowska, Wyszogrodzki) for the participants of the ritual. The main idea of the Empty Night is to say goodbye to the deceased, but it also has an integrating function, strengthening the bonds within the local community. The practical aim of the meeting is to reduce the fear of death or to activate relevant intra-group mechanisms so that fear does not significantly disturb their mental health. Therefore, the main intention of the participants to the ritual is to give the family of the deceased time to come to terms with the painful phenomenon of death. In his documentary Kaszuby (the ), the President of the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association at that time, Józef Borzyszkowski, emphasises that it is a ‘farewell to the deceased by the whole community’ (Niedbalska, 1991).

Historical background

The belief in the participation of the deceased in rituals in their honour derives from pagan eschatology and, interestingly, records or archaeological material indicate not only ritual feasting but also dances of various types. Kajkowski (2017: 186) points out there was a Celtic belief that on certain nights the dead come to the surface and dance with the living participants of the ritual, while in Romania when the funeral procession was to cross a bridge, two men took the corpse out of the coffin and danced with it. Dances and carouses during empty night rituals are confirmed by numerous ethnographic sources collected in Slavic lands, not only in northern Poland but also in Ukraine (Kajkowski, 2017: 186). Death was an opportunity to protect the living , , by/with ceremonial rituals which, apart from religious ones, also had magical purposes . One of the most important and well-established rituals of this type, undoubtedly originating from the pre-Christian times, is the Kashubian Pustô noc (Empty Night), which entails watching and singing over the deceased in their house. People from the entire village were invited, often following the will of the deceased. The soul of the deceased would see the

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neighbours and thus their presence around the coffin was a kind of neighbourly duty (App. 1: Kotłowska, Treder, Klimczyk). The beginning of this practice dates back to primitive, pre-Christian cultures. Various rituals were supposed to help the soul ‘cross the great divide’, and singing was one of them. Until the Second Vatican Council (11 October 1962-8 December 1965), in Catholic churches chants were sung in Latin, which can explain the need for additional prayer in the native language at home. Bartosz Izbicki suggests the probable influence of the activities of the Jesuit Order on ‘folk’ religious songs, emphasising at the same time the specificity of the performance of the Empty Night songs:

To this day, the manner in which the ancient chants of the Catholic Church are performed is the subject of heated polemics among musicologists (...). And here in Poland, we have a deeply-rooted tradition of chants which can be heard at Empty Nights, where people sing with long phrases, where wailing used to this day appears – it seems to me that this is the key to the sacredness of the songs (Szczerbic, 2014).

Many elements from pre-Christian times have been preserved in Kashubian beliefs (such as Gwiazdor /starman/, Gwiżdże /carollers/, Dyngus Day in Jastre /Easter/ etc.) and they are still functioning today. In the Kashubian tradition, the concept of the soul is closer to that of the old, pre-Christian one, remaining in a spiritual and physical relationship with the living, which requires performing certain perimortem practices. Such beliefs and actions towards the deceased are, in fact, quite universal and can be found in Gabon, Rhodesia, Kenya, as well as in medieval Denmark and England or Ireland as well as Greece and North Macedonia (Kozłowska, 2017). In Kashubia, as compared with the rest of the country, they have survived for an exceptionally long time, which is related to the cultural isolation of the region from the rest of the Slavdom, and the resistance to Germanization, which manifested itself in its own traditions. Kashubians survived as a large group, in an extensive cluster, where they were not subjected to the assessment by people of different origin – or incomers from other regions of Poland.

From death to funeral... and beyond

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Funeral has always been one of the most important events for the family and the neighbourhood community in Kashubia, apart from baptism and wedding. Three days before the funeral, family and neighbours would gather in the house of the deceased, or nowadays in the church or a specially prepared room in the funeral home, to say the rosary. On the last evening, the prayers and chants continue beyond midnight or until the morning (Borzyszkowski, 2016: 199). The tendency to shorten the empty night ritual was observed by Piotr Chamier: ‘Gradually, the prayers were shortened. First until midnight, and now until 10:00 p.m., and to some people it still seems too long’ (Kurier Bytowski, 2018 and Patrycja Kotłowska (App. 1: Kotłowska)). Shortly after the death, the eyes of the deceased were closed (Treder, 2002: 135), as it was believed that the eyesight of the deceased could kill. Then all the clocks in the house were stopped until the time of the funeral, which symbolised the end of life. As the greatest authority on Kashubian perimortem spirituality and customs, Father Jan Perszon explains in a documentary Ze śmiercią na Ty /With Death by name/ (Karczewska, 2014), that the minute a member of the household dies, the clock stops so that silence prevails and the body and soul – if the death occurred at home – are left in peace, as Kashubians believe that the soul stays close to the body between death and funeral. Additionally, it is a symbolic gesture for visitors to the house of mourning which informs them of the time at which the deceased died. The stopping of the clock is perceived as the stopping of the heart and it appears in the empty night songs, such as Zegar bije, wspominaj na ostatnie rzeczy /The Clock Beats, Remember the Last Things/ (Perszon, 2017: 504). People would open windows, thereby releasing the soul of the deceased, and they would cover mirrors. The mirror was one of the symbolic forms of the line separating the living from the spirits, and thus the reflection of the deceased could cause another death (Kowalski, 1998: 289, 630). The windows in the room where the deceased rested were also covered, which, apart from its magical dimension, was also purely practical – it slowed down the process of decomposition (App. 1: Jancen). Currently, people not connected with the funeral industry rarely come into contact with corpses, even if they experience the moment of death of someone from their family. They often do not want to say goodbye to a family member in the pre-burial chapel to avoid remembering the sight of the deceased in the coffin. Such behaviour is hardly surprising, as contemporary culture and customs make death a taboo, but for the people of Kashubia, death is still an event belonging to life, somehow ‘normal’ and ‘ordinary’, for, as the proverb says:

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Chto sa rodzy, muszi umrzeć (Those who were born must die) (Perszon, 2017: 33). Wencel (2010) agrees:

The Empty Night ritual presented death as an integral part of human fate, gave hope for eternity, taught respect for the experiences of the deceased, united the past with the present and brought the community together. Maybe I was an unusual child, but after visiting my neighbours saying goodbye to someone close to me I did not have nightmares.

Referring to the ethnologist Adam Fischer, Perszon recalls that there was a ‘mortal plank’ in every village, which remained in the house of mourning after the funeral and was moved to another house when one of the neighbours died, to lay the deceased on it (Pryczkowski, 2017), which is confirmed by the experience of witnesses (App. 1: Wyszogrodzki, Klimczyk) and ethnographic research (Kukier, 1968: 272). Teresa Romańska also witnessed this custom: ‘Not long after that, old Antolka died. (...) The deceased was placed in the best room, for the time being on a plank, because we had to wait for the carpenter to make a coffin’ (Szczerbic, 2014). Three to four decades ago, it was perfectly normal for the deceased to be taken care of by the members of the household. The ritual ablutions to which the corpse was subjected washed away the traces of life from the deceased and helped in the rebirth on the other side (Kowalski, 1998: 626). Genowefa Galeńska explains that while performing the rituals one should talk to the deceased as if he were alive: ‘now give me your left hand... ’ (Karczewska, 2014), adding that the washcloths used to clean the body had to be burned. After washing the body, it was dressed in czëchło/żgło (a traditional long, white garment) (Młyńska, 2011a), or – in the case of children – communion and – in the case of adults – wedding, or other ceremonial clothing, which is still carefully kept especially for this occasion (Karczewska, 2014). A rosary, a prayer book or a coin, a snuff-box, a bottle of vodka and, in the case of children, favourite toys, were put in the hands of the deceased. , especially If there was a suspicion that after death he/she might become an òpi (opji, upi, wupij), i.e. a phantom,in order to protect the living from his/hers influence, ‘before they buried him, they put a piece of net or cloth from his clothes or a cross chaplet under his tongue’ (Ziółkowski 1986: 13).

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In the documentary Keeping Up With the Kashubians2 (Paczkowska, 2015) crowds of people arrive, eat, say goodbye to the deceased, pray and sing. As the film's director Karolina Paczkowska recalls: ‘the most interesting thing I have managed to capture is the Empty Night Ritual, which takes place in the house of the deceased, where the coffin is displayed, the vigil is held, the last coffee is had, and people are singing all night long’ (Słomczyński, 2017). In Puck, the members of the community were informed about the death of a villager by an old woman walking from house to house, carrying a white walnut or hazelnut walking stick, sometimes wrapped with a black pall (Młyńska, 2011a). In Bytów County, death was announced by carrying a wooden stick (klëka) around the village. Nowadays, people are invited to the Empty Night, both formally and informally, by hanging an announcement of death and related rituals, which is hung on an information board by the church and cemetery and made available on the Internet. The rosary is usually said during the three nights preceding the funeral and this is part of the ritual which is still practised in Kashubia today. ‘Besides singing, I also recite the rosary for the dead. It only takes will, it isn't difficult’ assures Zofia Chamier Gliszczyńska, one of the keepers of this tradition (Kurier Bytowski, 2018). In the room where the deceased lay (or in the neighbouring room) a table was set up for singers, and benches and chairs for the rest of those who came to the ceremony (Szczerbic, 2014). The ritual began with the prayers ‘Our Father’, ‘Hail Mary’ and ‘Eternal Rest’ (Perszon, 2017: 193), then the rosary was recited, and then solemn, throat singing filled the whole house and sometimes the neighbourhood (App. 1: Ulenberg), as participants of the Empty Nights express the belief that a sung prayer is of much greater value (Perszon, 2017: 195-196). The orants lead the way using special songbooks ‘for empty nights’, often old and falling apart (App 1: Wyszogrodzki) notebooks passed from generation to generation or nowadays, photocopied pages. As noted, among others, by Perszon (2017: 25):

Prayer books and psalm books play an important role in Kashubian rituals connected with death. Printed in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the ritual books are still in use today. They are mainly used by the leaders of perimortem spirituality, i.e. persons who give a ritual and substantive character to the services during the agony, rosary meetings, ‘empty nights’ and funeral ceremonies.

2 It is worth noting that this is another documentary about Kashubia, which has been made in recent years. The authors are usually young filmmakers, fascinated by Kashubia, who want to capture the unique culture of the region.

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Rosary prayers and signing of pious songs for the deceased is not a phenomenon occurring solely in Kashubia. In her account, Teresa Romańska, who participated in a project entitled, Puste noce w Płotowie (Empty Nights in Płotów), names such places as Niegocin, Turze, Jabłonowo (Kurier Bytowski, 2018), and mentions the towns of Krempa and Brochów (Sczerbic, 2014). Kajkowski (2017: 192), confirms that ‘there are many records from the territory of Poland according to which funeral traditions consisting in singing, intemperate drinking and playing during the funeral service and night-time wake by the side of the deceased were present in the folk beliefs’. Singers – ‘leaders’ of songs and prayers, which can contain up to 50 verses, were people whose authority was unquestioned in the local communities. The Kashubian funeral rite is the art of prayer during the wake by the side of the deceased, which continues uninterruptedly until the present day, that depends on the involvement of those people. As Perszon (2017: 200) clearly emphasises:

“Empty Night” is a sui generis religious service (...) because the songs are not performed on other occasions. In addition, folk piety knows no similar night-time vigils held outside a church. The strength of this tradition seems to confirm the thesis that it is a custom deriving from pre-Christian times.

During the empty nights, those gathered, led by one of the orants, usually the oldest one, sing religious songs which ensure that the deceased will find peace in the afterlife. However, the needs of the living would not be forgotten: ‘on the empty nights, the signers are plied with vodka, sausages, cake and coffee’ (Kukier, 1968: 278), ‘the singers were treated to tea, coffee and cabbage stew’ (Pryczkowski, 2017), ‘there were sweets, there was a little cake, because, obviously, the singing went on for many hours’ (Karczewska, 2014). According to the witnesses, however, the traditional coffee and kuch /cake/ ‘would often take a much more lavish form’ (App. 2: Damps, Wyszogrodzki). Apart from that, there was vodka on the table ‘so they could wet their whistles’ (Perszon, 2017: 198). These practices obviously angered the clergy and resulted in incidents that would be talked about for many years (App. 1: Szydlarska). There was even a common saying that on the Empty Night the singers ‘drank their way through the skin of the deceased’ or even ‘stretched it out’ (App. 1: Jancen). Clergymen were no less hostile towards the second element of the rite, which was once very important for the rural communities – the present (men) would walk up to the

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deceased (Odyniec, 1985:61) to check whether the body was not developing the features of a vjesci, or opji, namely a wraith. During his ethnographic studies conducted among the Kashubians of Bytów County, Kukier witnessed such practices (1968: 272):

The people who gathered at the night-time wake closely watch the appearance of the deceased to see whether the body is not showing the features of a vjesci or opji (...) vivid, ruddy colour of the face, slightly opened eyes, changes in the position of the deceased in the coffin, corpse not stiffening and so on.

Vjesci is a specific demonic creature, occurring mainly in the folk tales in the area of Pomerania (Baranowski, 1981:63). Bestiariusz Słowiański /Slavic Bestiary/ says that vjesci would ‘leave its grave, climb up the church tower and scream out the names of its loved ones in a terrifying voice. Those who hear the call will die that very same night’ (Vargas, Zych, 2015: 194). Vjesci is described in a similar way in the book entitled Niemcy na Kaszubach w XIX wieku (Germans in Kashubia in the 19th century) (Młyńska, 2016) and in the novella entitled Prawda (The Truth) from the anthology Złota Przędza (The Golden Thread), in which we read:

A corpse that maintains a vivid colour of the body, the hands of which are not stiff but so limber that they can be bent, is known as a strzyga, strzygoń or a wraith. Here, in Pomerania, they also call him/it a vjesci or a wupij (Ziółkowski, 1986: 13).

Jadwiga Klimczyk emphasises that vjesci should not be confused with an opji/wupij as they are two different creatures and opji is much more dangerous (App. 1: Klimczyk). This information can also be found in Bedeker Kaszubski /Kashubian bedeker/, but, contrary to Bestiariusz Słowiański – it is an opji that climbs the bell tower and is able to drag the whole village, not only the relatives (Ostrowska, Trojanowska, 1974: 458). As Genowefa Galenska (Karczewska, 2014) says, three crosses are poured out of the wax from the blessed candle (no other candle has such an effect), which are then placed under the armpits and arranged on the chest of the deceased because otherwise ‘people could faint, if the corpse wasn't secured, they could get sick or an òpi could take someone away.’ Other remedies against the wraiths include holy water (to sprinkle the body of the deceased) and consecrated chalk (to draw a chalk outline of the body). This is also confirmed by Jerzy and Krystyna Walkusz (Karczewska, 2014). In the research of Kukier, there are also coins, brick,

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fishing nets, a sack of sand or a string with numerous knots (Kukier, 1968:273). These and similar apotropaics, as Piotr Kowalski suggests, were intended to ‘keep the deceased in a confined space and prevent them from harassing the living’ (Kowalski, 1998: 629). Believing in wraiths was present in the Kashubian culture at least until the mid-19th century, and an Empty night served, among other things, to observe the body in terms of its potential transformation. This seems to justify the fact that, until recently, only men kept guard by the coffin, in order to be able to react effectively if necessary. However, nowadays, with the disappearance of faith in demonic creatures, women are also welcome to sing (Appendix 1: all interviewees born in 1979). Despite many superstitions of pagan origin, the funeral traditions of the Kashubians were rooted deeply in Christianity. Until the present day, faith remains one of the most important elements of their culture. For this reason, they did not fear natural death and understood it as the ‘threshold of eternity’ or ‘return to the homeland’ (Młyńska, 2011b). It was, therefore, socially accepted and people respected both death and the deceased, which frequently took forms unacceptable for the contemporary people, such as, for example, kissing the deceased on their mouth while paying respects.

After my father's death in February 1995, his body was placed in a red brick morgue by the church. Fifteen minutes before the funeral, one of my father's brothers, a farmer from Kashubia, walked up to the open coffin and gave the corpse a firm kiss on the mouth. (...) Uncle was saying goodbye to his brother who in his opinion had not ceased to exist but just set off on the distant journey (Wencel, 2010).

After the Empty Night ended and the coffin was closed, it would be carried outside, where the final farewell to the farm took place. The funeral carriage was pulled first by an ox, then a horse. These days, the coffin is placed in a hearse of a funeral company. The funeral procession consisted of family members, neighbours, friends (in the past, all villagers). It was believed that ‘because the soul walked right behind the corpse, the coffin should move slowly and people should walk at a certain distance from the carriage’ (Treder, 2002: 145). At the final part of the funeral, after the service and prayers during the placement of the coffin in the grave, the priest threw a lump of earth and sprinkled holy water. The Kashubians believe that the soul finally leaves the body for good at this very moment. The participants of the funeral also throw lumps of earth onto the coffin, seeing it as a farewell and reconciliation with the deceased. Perszon mentions a belief that the closest family should not

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stand too close to the edge of the pit as the person closest to the deceased could ‘follow them’. After the funeral, the so-called porters usually go to the nearest tavern to drink vodka, bought by the people organising the funeral, in order to ‘cleanse themselves’ of the corpse with alcohol (Perszon 2017: 212-213). Demonic phenomena are often associated with the belief that something terrible may happen to the body after death – that it may come alive again, but its life will no longer be human, and the deceased will come back as vjesci or opji. One of the methods of treating the deceased suspected to be at risk of becoming a wraith was to dig up the body and sever the head, preferably with a sharp-edged spade. After the decapitation, the head would be placed between the legs of the wraith so that it would be unable to reach for it and rise from the grave. The existence of such practices was confirmed by the words of Genowefa Galeńska, Wacław Gański and Brunon Zalewski (Karczewska, 2014). People who were more superstitious would collect the blood of the alleged opji into rags or dishes, and later feed it to the sick in order to cure them or protect them from further revenge of wraiths (Kukier, 1986: 276). Even though the first reports of ethnologists concerning night-time grave digging in order to decapitate corpses date back to the 19th century, the archaeological material collected in the area of Kashubia and in a broader area of the Baltic Sea basin (both in the Slavic territory and in the territory belonging to the Vikings) indicates that such practices were common at least a thousand years earlier (Kajkowski, 2017: 120-124). According to Młyńska, the last documented decapitation of a corpse took place in the middle of the 19th century, however, readers commenting the article disagreed with her thesis indicating at least two cases after World War II and even later – a little over 30 years ago:

There are newer reports on attempts [also successful ones – NWL’s note] to decapitate corpses (...) one speaks of a man (lelek – a village idiot) who kept on saying throughout his life that after his death he would become an opji. After he died, one of his neighbours had a dream about this and decided to remove his head. (Młyńska 2011b, comments section).

To save from oblivion · Music publishing and cultural events

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Cierpiącym Duszom. Pieśni Pustej Nocy /To the Suffering Souls. Songs of the Empty Night/ (2015) Wanting to save this unique tradition from oblivion, the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association undertook a project entitled: ‘Reconstruction of the Tradition of Empty Night in Kashubia’ in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The aim of the initiative was to prepare a musical notation of songs typical for night-time wake based on a field research conducted among several groups of Empty Night singers in 2015. As a result, a music album was recorded. It contains selected songs written down during the research and performed in accordance with the established tradition – monophonically by men. The second part of the CD contains songs performed by a four-voice mixed choir accompanied by organs. It is worth adding that based on the above-mentioned research, an extensive compendium was also published – a songbook entitled Pieśni Pustej Nocy (Songs of the Empty Night) containing the lyrics and musical notation of 90 songs together with an instructional CD. It is currently the largest compendium of Kashubian Empty Night songs.

Puste Noce – Pieśni, które już się kończą /Empty Nights – Songs which are already ending/ (2014) Laboratorium Pieśni (Song’s Laboratory) is a female vocal ensemble from the Tri- City, created in 2013. The group sings and arranges polyphonic songs: Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Albanian, Bosnian, Polish, Georgian, Scandinavian etc. The songs are performed a capella and accompanied by ethnic instruments, introducing a new, female arrangement into traditional songs, one that contains space for intuitive voice improvisations. In 2014, the ensemble created a performance entitled Puste Noce – Pieśni, które już się kończą: a miniature of the rite and a presentation of the most interesting songs, illustrated by cheironomy, movement and dance. The performance was created based on field research conducted in Kashubia since 2013. An album under the same title was also released that same year.

Pusta noc, gdy odchodzisz duszo /Empty Night, when you are leaving, Soul/ (2018, 2019) The play Pusta noc, gdy odchodzisz duszo was presented in 2018 in Gdynia and Wejherowo, and in 2019 – in . The originator and the author of the screenplay was Wojciech Rybakowski, the President of the Misternicy Kaszubscy Association. The play presents the poems of a Polish-Kashubian author, Jerzy Stachurski, and traditional Empty Night songs. The uniqueness of the project consists in its unconventional concept, combining words, images, silence and sound as well as darkness and light. Classical elements of a

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symphonic concert with a choir are juxtaposed with modern elements of multimedia projections as well as light and sound effects. A website, pustanoc.pl, and a songbook by Jerzy Stachurski, which can be downloaded as a PDF file, were also created as part of the project.

· Contemporary Literature Paulina Hendel, Pusta Noc. /Empty Night/ Poznań 2017. Magda, the main protagonist of the first volume of fantasy series about Reapers fighting Slavic wraiths, is a person who will do anything to protect herself and others from the otherworldly beings – especially now that her Reaper Uncle has died again and no one knows how long it will take him to return (and how long this Empty Night’s time will be). Wraiths, demons and other creatures show the potential hidden in our native and underestimated culture that is slowly being forgotten. As a result, the novel was praised by the readers.

Małgorzata Oliwia Sobczak, Czerń. /Black/, Warsaw 2020 A crime novel set in begins with a hunter finding a body with a severed head, placed between its legs. The idea for the murder was drawn directly from the Kashubian funeral culture. As the author emphasises, ‘for me, Kashubia is a place of remarkable atmosphere and I dare say that it’s an utterly magical place’ (Andruszko, 2020).

While preparing to write this article, we assumed that, among the material presented, there would also be a number of feature films, but in this field, we had to admit defeat. Admittedly, the Kashubians and the turbulent history of the region began to be noticed and appreciated also by filmmakers, e.g. in the films Born of the Sea (2009, dir. Andrzej Kotkowski), Black Thursday. Janek Wiśniewski fell (2011, dir. Antoni Krauze) or The Butler (2018, dir. Filip Bajon), but none of the films watched, starting with Kaszëbë (1970, dir. Ryszard Ber) and The Tin Drum (1979, dir. by Volker Schlöndorff), made any mention of Kashubian funeral customs. Perhaps the reason is that the directors were not Kashubians, so they were not familiar with the customs described in the article or the customs did not seem to go well with the plot, as in the case of Kaszëbë. On the other hand, in recent years there have been a number of documentaries depicting Kashubians, their history, culture and customs, such as the one already mentioned Ze śmiercią na Ty (2014, dir. Ewelina Karczewska), Empty Nights (2014, dir. Marcin Szczerbic) or the documentary Na psa urok /For dog’s curse/ (2016, dir. Ewelina Karczewska and Piotr Zatoń).

· An empty night in a public space

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Perszon stresses that the crisis and transformation related to the rituals in Kashubia have been present since the 19th century. It was influenced by such factors as industrialization or the gradual migration of people to cities, which eliminated some forms of rural piety. The development of funeral companies eliminated family members from the process of preparing the body for the funeral (Pryczkowski, 2017). Nevertheless, the Kashubians more and more often refer to this local custom during the funerals of people most distinguished for the region. A public Pustô noc was organized in 2005, on the evening preceding the funeral of Pope John Paul II, at the Sanctuary of the Queen of the Kashubs in Sianowo. In 2010, an Empty Night for the victims of the Smolensk air disaster was held in Banino’s parish church. In 2013, the activists of the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association organized an Empty Night for their long- time president, a tireless promoter of Kashubian culture, Professor Brunon Synak. In 2016, before the funeral of the remains of the Cursed Soldiers – Danuta Siedzikówna ‘Inka’ and Feliks Selmanowicz ‘Zagończyk’, precisely on the 70th anniversary of their execution by the communists in the Gdańsk prison, the rosary was said by the coffins in the evening, and after 9 pm the night-time wake accompanied by Empty Night songs began. The most recent example of a public Empty Night Ritual is the ceremony which the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association and the inhabitants of Gdańsk held for Paweł Adamowicz on 18 January 2019. The Mayor of Gdańsk was stabbed during the Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, on the evening of 13 January, when he spoke on stage in the Old Town of Gdansk. He died in hospital on the following day. An Empty Night ceremony was a symbol of solidarity with the family of the Mayor and an appreciation that the Kashubians expressed to ‘the most Kashubian’ of the Mayors of Gdańsk. Nowadays, the memory of the vjesci, mòrë (incubus) and ghosts is slowly fading away, as is the interest of young people in the once prestigious occupation of a singer. According to Piotr Chamier Gliszczyński, ‘None of them are willing to learn songs or participate in an Empty Night. I think that no one will follow in our footsteps’ (Kurier Bytowski, 2018). Few Kashubians remember about wraiths, even if the activities related to protection against them persist, as confirmed by the research of Anna Kwaśniewska, an ethnologist, on the intangible heritage of Kashubia, which reveals that a significant percentage of young people cultivate various magical practices to protect against evil spirits (Kozłowska, 2017). Bishop Marian Przykucki (Kaszuby, 1991) agrees: ‘it appears that Kashubians are very committed to tradition, not only on the religious level, but also on the customary one.’ All that remains is to hope that despite Roman Dżedżon's statement (Słomczyński, 2019):

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This is the result of the centralisation of education and McDonaldization of culture. Folk beliefs were not studied at schools, perhaps nowadays a little more is being mentioned about them, but it still is not enough. In the fifties and sixties, these stories lived in country cottages but there was no one to tell them. Folk beliefs were treated as a ‘lame-o’ and a ‘disgrace’.

Because of the increasing efforts of ethnographers, documentarians, artists and supporters of the Kashubian region, the ritual of The Empty Night will not disappear completely into the abyss of history, but will remain, albeit in a changed form, a testimony to the richness of Kashubian folklore. As one of the most prominent Kashubian poets, Alojzy Nagel (Pomierska, 2013: 456), wrote: ‘Nie tak rechło zaspiewają nom Kaszebom na Pusti Noce’ /Not so soon will they sing to us Kashubians on an Empty Night/.

Pic. 1 &2. Empty Night in private home

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Pic. 3. Saying the Rosary

Pic. 4. The singers at the table

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References: Baranowski, B. (1981) W kręgu upiorów i wilkołaków. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Łódzkie. Borzyszkowski, J. (2016) Tam, gdze Kaszeb początk. Dzieje i współczesność wsi gminy Karsin. Inowrocław: TOTEM. Bronk, S. (ed.) (2015) Pieśni Pustej Nocy. Gdańsk: Zrzeszenie Kaszubsko-Pomorskie Kajkowski, K. (2017) Mity, kult i rytuał. O duchowości nadbałtyckich Słowian. : Triglav. Kukier, R. (1968) Kaszubi bytowscy. Zarys monografii etnograficznej. Gdynia: Wydawnictwo Morskie. Kowalski, P. (1998) Leksykon. Znaki świata. Warszawa: PWN. Odyniec, W. (1985) Kaszubskie obrzędy i zwyczaje. Gdańsk: Zrzeszenie Kaszubsko- Pomorskie. Ostrowska, R. Trojanowska, I. (1974) Bedeker Kaszubski. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Morskie. Perszon, J. (2017) Na brzegu życia i śmierci. Zwyczaje, obrzędy oraz wierzenia pogrzebowe i zaduszkowe na Kaszubach. Gdańsk-Pelplin: Zrzeszenie Kaszubsko-Pomorskie, Bernardinum. Pomierska, J. (2013) Przysłowia kaszubskie. Gdańsk: Instytut Kaszubski. Treder, J. (2002) Kaszubi. Wierzenia i twórczość. Ze Słownika Sychty. Gdańsk: Oficyna Czec. Ziółkowski, J. (1986) Złota przędza. Opowieści mazurskie i kaszubskie. Warszawa: Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza.

Articles: Andruszko, J. (2020) Seryjni mordercy nie są zazwyczaj szczególnie inteligentni ani bystrzy. Booklips, 20 May. Available at: https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Seryjni+mordercy+nie+są+zazw yczaj+szczególnie+inteligentni+ani+bystrzy&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 (accessed 26 May 2020). Kozłowska A. (2017) Kaszuby w listopadową noc. Uważaj na zmory! Przekrój, 2 November. Available at: https://przekroj.pl/nauka/kaszuby-w-listopadowa-noc-uwazaj-na-zmory- aleksandra-kozlows (accessed 28 April 2020). Młyńska, A. (2011a) Kaszub śmierci się nie boi. Histmag.org, 2 November. Available at: www.histmag.org/Kaszub-smierci-sie-nie-boi.-O-dawnej-kulturze-pogrzebowej-polnocnej- Polski-6060 (accessed 5 May 2020).

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Młyńska, A. (2011b) Kaszubskie upiory. Histmag.org, 31 October. Available at: www.histmag.org/Kaszubskie-upiory-czyli-czego-bac-sie-noca-na-Kaszubach- 6050%3Flinkwew?id=6050?linkwew (accessed 5 May 2020). Młyńska, A. (2016) Łopi porywa do grobu, Magazyn Kaszuby, 5 April. Available at: www.magazynkaszuby.pl/2016/04/kaszubskie-upiory-czyli-o-pozeraniu-wlasnych-zwlok/ (accessed 25 March 2020). nn.?!? (2018) Puste noce w Płotowie, Kurier Bytowski, 3 December. Available at: www.kurierbytowski.com.pl/artykul/puste-noce-w-plotowie-filmgaleria/657306 (accessed 10 March 2020). Słomczyński, T. (2017) Film o Kaszubach. Być muchą na ścianie. Magazyn Kaszubski, 27 May. Available at: www.magazynkaszuby.pl/2017/05/film-o-kaszubach/ (accessed 20 may 2020). Słomczyński, T. (2019) Ekologia, miłość, seks i rozpusta. Wszędzie duchy! Cykl filmów o kaszubskich duchach i demonach. Magazyn Kaszubski, 11 October. Available at: http://magazynkaszuby.pl/2019/10/ekologia-milosc-seks-rozpusta-wszedzie-duchy-cykl- filmow-o-kaszubskich-duchach-demonach/ (accessed 20 May 2020). Wencel, W. (2010) Pusta noc. Higienizm jest gorszy od faszyzmu. Available at: www.kultura.wiara.pl/doc/452882.Pusta-noc (accessed 4 February 2020).

Documentary: Kaszubi (1991), reż. Niedbalska, L. Gdańsk: Video Studio Gdańsk, 51:46. Available at: http://archiwumfilmowe.pl/baza-filmowa/filmy/105-kaszubi (accessed 24 April 2020). Keeping Up With the Kashubians (2015), reż. Paczkowska, K., 25 min, Available at: https://vimeo.com/148358208 (accessed 25 May 2020). Pusta noc w tradycji Kaszubskiej (2017) reż., Pryczkowski, E., 37:31 min, Available at: http://www.wirtualnekaszuby.com/przegladaj-filmy2/172-pusta-noc-w-tradycji- kaszubskiej (accessed 25 May 2020). Puste Noce (2014), reż. Szczerbiec M., Warszawa: Mazowiecki Instytut Kultury, 45:00. Available with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhtZUI8o07I (accessed 23 April 2020). Ze śmiercią na Ty (2014), reż. Karczewska E. Kartuzy: Hemoglobina Studios, 29:06. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP6vi_3pUzc&fbclid=IwAR0usE9VmPv9SLxgGyd0u IMREgyLUkj_RnVdHQzbeVlqRTH265zchNxvQh8(accessed 24 April 2020).

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Pictures: Pic. 1-4: The Empty Night ritual for Zofia Pyszka, 2001, courtesy of Jadwiga Klimczyk, home archive

Appendix 1. Interviews.

Damps Łukasz, born in 1979: I guess I was about 18-25 years old. Leźno and Kamień near Szemud. The body was in another room. Men and women would sit together, going there [to the deceased], women brought coffee, a bottle was on the table. Mostly men would sit, women were more often in the kitchen, but then they would sit too. When you talked about an empty night, my uncle was a singer in the parish and they invited him to pray that the soul of the deceased would go to heaven. At the same time, a man could get out of the house and drink vodka with his friends. It was more like a social meeting, I found it even boring.

Jakubowska Adriana, born in 1979: It was such a long time ago that I don't remember much. I was about 5 years old, . The village, my great-grandfather, a body in the house, a mixed company of people, but I don't remember if there were any other children.

Jancen Mateusz, born in 1979: The situation took place some 15 years ago, it was a warm summer, and the room with the man's body was closed and dark curtains or blankets hung on all the windows so that the sunlight would not heat the room. In another room there was a table with food and of course there was some alcohol. The rituals began with praying the rosary and then hymns were sung. Usually there is a person who leads these prayers and chants. A family attends an Empty Night, the neighbours and friends of the deceased come as well. As far as I know, there was no division and there were women and men involved. I also remember that drinking alcohol on an Empty Night was referred to as naciąganie skóry (skin stretching)

Klimczyk Jadwiga, born in 1941: A vjesci differed from an opji – an opji is even worse, more dangerous. My father used to say, because there was a wooden footbridge on Radunia river, that you could see an opji fighting with a vjescithere. And when Stefa died, she was lying in that one room of theirs, and after the rosary all the closest ones were sitting around the coffin, and we were singing, and in the end it turned into all sorts of talking and laughing, and

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various stories about her, so I would like to be around my closest ones, families, before my funeral, and I wish everyone would be laughing and singing. It is worth stressing that nowadays children are not used to the idea of dying. When I was a child, and it was in the 1950s, whoever died in Somonino, everyone went to pray the rosary, already on the first day, on the second and on the third, Empty Night’s. We, children, had to go. Nobody asked us whether we wanted to or not. My parents often wouldn't go, they sent us instead. There were whole groups of children and I remember that I was reluctant for a long time, I was simply afraid of seeing those who had died, because there used to be no such cosmetics, and this person was lying on a plank covered with white canvas, the family removed it so that you had to see him or her already on that first day during the rosary. It terrified me. But we were used to seeing that.

Kotłowska Patrycja, born in 1979: I remember that, as a child, I participated in an Empty Night – Somonino, Goręczyno, Wygoda, Brodnica Górna. In fact, it lasted mostly until midnight, then it was just the closest family that stayed. The deceased was at home – one room was prepared for him or her. In the other room there was a family and those ‘singers’ who led the prayers/chants. They intertwined with conversations about the deceased and breaks to eat something (I remember that there was an abundance of food on the tables). I think I was about 6-7 years old when I participated in such an Empty Night where you ate and sang in the same room where the deceased was lying. I didn't really understand what this was all about, so I wasn't afraid, but it stuck in my mind. In the villages, great attention is paid to these events and you should participate in them – out of respect for the deceased and the family. If it's just the rosary then it's okay, but an Empty Night, even if it only lasts until midnight, can actually be a challenge.

Szydlarska Danuta, born in 1949: I remember such a night with my grandfather Julian at home in 1960. But it wasn't the whole night, after the rosary a lot of people, probably men, stayed around and sang. Not all night long, but in the villages they sang until dawn and the hosts served coffee and some yeast bun. Unofficially, there was alcohol, to make people sing louder. I once heard from a friend of mine that after one Empty Night, a coffin with an elderly woman was looked for in the gardens before leaving for church, because she had been placed there as she was interfering with the dancing, with which this night ended. They got so drunk before the funeral that they were looking for a coffin in the bushes.

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Treder Adam, born in 1979: I experienced three Empty Nights as a teenager, in Przyjaźń, near Żukowo. Everything used to happen at home. There was a morgue in the village, but this would have been considered a sort of insult at the time. The night before the funeral they sang and said the rosary (several times) until the morning. Men and women together. I know that it is still often organized in a similar way – as long as the conditions permit – that is a house in the countryside, a homestead.

Ulenberg Teresa, born in 1965: At my father-in-law's, men would come after the rosary and on that last night they would sing from twelve o'clock till 5 o'clock in the morning. I don't really know what these hymns are like, because they're of a special kind, but my brother-in- law knows it, because he's a singer there in Sianowo, and when the Pope [died], they sang for him too. My neighbour also has all these hymns in his book, he used to be a singer too, this tradition has always been followed here, there was an Empty Night for my grandfather. And for my mother, we watched over her at night, and then in the morning the singers came. It is rather only men who come, women only occasionally. Gackowski once said that these singers could be heard five kilometres upwind and five kilometres with the wind, because, obviously, they liked to drink and they were very skilled singers. Once the tradition was different, you walked behind the coffin, and now everyone goes by car. I remember when my grandmother died, I was 8 years old, all the corpses were kept in the house. In Kartuzy, there was a morgue, but it wasn't the case in the villages. My dad never wanted it, he always said he didn't want to be in any morgue, he wanted to be at home.

Włodzimierz Wyszogrodzki, born in 1954: We were on Pawełek’s Empty Night in Leszno. First, there were some general prayers there, then the women were cooking in the kitchen, we were sitting, drinking coffee and then everyone left, only those men with the books to sing with arrived, six of them, I think. I saw such a book once again at Dąbrowski's, because he also sang like this, and said that it had belonged to his grandfather, it was so wiped out, it was some kind of a hymn book, printed. Pawełek was lying in one room, still on the plank at the time, maybe they didn't have a coffin yet. The women were cooking and the men were drinking vodka, eating and singing. There was plenty of food.

Maša Guštin, PhD, is a lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the University of Gdańsk (also lectures at the Department of Film and Audiovisual Culture and Institute of Russian and Eastern Studies). Research interests include Russian cinematography, cinema of former

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Yugoslav countries, culturological topics related with (Post)Yugoslav region, folklore and pop culture. Author of the book Kino w mieście – miasto w kinie. Petersburska twórczość filmowa w czasie transformacji (A City in the Film – the Cinema in the City. St. Petersburg’s Film Art during the Transformation; Gdańsk, 2018). E-Mail: [email protected]

Natalia Wyszogrodzka-Liberadzka, PhD, is a lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the University of Gdańsk. Scientific interests and current research routes vary from the problems of literary generations in Croatia (with particular regard to krugovi generation and its role in (Post)Yugoslav literature, culture and politics), Slavic mythology and its representation in modern pop culture, to titonostalgy, yugonostalgy and identity issues in contemporary Croatian and Slavic culture. E-mail: [email protected]

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