Lajkonik

It is the subject of the Lajkonik Festival (Polish: Lajkoniki) that takes place each year on the first Thursday after the religious holiday of Corpus Christi.

Some think that it originated in pre-Christian times when it was believed that in the spring the horse brought good luck and high crop yields.

To the relief of the people of the city their true identity was soon discovered and the incident's popularity led the mayor to declare this to be an annual celebration.

The Tatars returned to ravage southern Poland again in 1259 and 1287 and the threat they posed dominated central and east European political and religious life for the next 200 years or so...

In regional folklore the Tatar assumed the position of bogeyman, as the Kraków Corpus Christi "Lajkonik" procession colorfully reminds one"[1] Whatever the origin, the city continues the tradition with a festival that has taken place every June for the past 700 years.

He rides a prancing white hobbyhorse through the city streets from the Premonstratensian (Norbertine) Convent in Zwierzyniec to the Main Market Square.

[2] At the Market Square, the mayor of the city awaits the Lajkonik with a pile of ransom money and a chalice with which they make a toast to the wellbeing of Kraków and its inhabitants.