Edited by MCK Sokół | Lesser Poland
Torokary, Świcaky i Pupkary
Country: Poland
Region: Lesser Poland
Type of inspiration: Cultural customs
Inspiracja
Clothes characteristic of members of a community (e.g. a parish, village or ethnographic group) often became the source of names and nicknames, often humorous or malicious, given to their owners by neighbours or researchers. Such was the case with the "Czuhaniec". This was the name Wincenty Pol, a 19th century explorer of the Carpathian Mountains, gave to the Lemkos, or Ruthenian highlanders living in the Beskids. He derived the name from the chuha - the outer garment that distinguished Lemko men. Wealthy landowners, often also their adult sons, wore the chuha on major holidays to church or more important fairs, treating this showy and expensive garment as a sign of prestige. The chuha was also an obligatory part of wedding attire. Sometimes a bachelor who was not wealthy enough had to borrow it. This did not escape the attention of the wedding party, who commented on the fact with malicious chants: "Pity tia Marysia, pity tia za nieho. Chuha borrowed and hunia ne jeho". During the nuptials, the bride would try to kneel the chuha of her future husband so that she could control him after the wedding.
A chuha is a wide coat made of brown self-made cloth, that is, woven in a home workshop and piled in a folush. It had the archaic cut of an oblong poncho and a large rectangular collar falling down the back. In bad weather, the collar could be tied or fastened together to serve as a hood. The chuha was usually thrown over the shoulders like a cape. The wide sleeves, sewn together at the bottom, were then used as pockets or small travelling pouches.
The way the chuha was finished and decorated made it possible to recognise which part of Lemkivshchyna the owner came from. In the west of the region, the collar and sleeves of the chuha were decorated with three horizontal stripes, woven from white yarn and finished with long tassels - "torokas". This is why, among their neighbours, these inhabitants received the nickname "Torokary". Much longer trots adorned the chuha of central Lemkivshchyna; they were associated with candles, which gave rise to the name "Svicaky". Further east, chuha had collars in the form of short cloaks with edges trimmed with string arranged in loops called 'pupki' or 'tits'. The inhabitants of these villages were referred to as "Pupkary" or "Cycaky".
Lemkos in parade chuha were captured on photographs by, among others, Roman Reinfuss. The largest collection of the researcher's photographs is in the collection of the Folk Architecture Museum in Sanok. A chuha with "toroky", dating from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, is one of the exhibits in the collection of folk costumes in the Nowy Sącz Ethnographic Park in Nowy Sącz.
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Nowy Sącz
Poland Lesser Poland
