Poland's Wedding to the Sea
As Venice so symbolized its marriage with the Adriatic so we Poles symbolize our marriage with our dear Baltic Sea.In October 1919, General Jozef Haller was named commandant of the Pomeranian Front of the Polish Army, a unit created to peacefully recover former German Empire's province of Pomerelia, which was granted to the Second Polish Republic by the Versailles Treaty.
On 18 January 1920, units of the 16th Infantry Division entered Torun (Thorn), and in the following days, Polish soldiers moved northwards, finally reaching the Baltic Sea coast on 10 February.
Early in the morning of 10 February, General Haller and his staff, on the way from Torun (Thorn) to Puck, met at Danzig Hbf.
The symbolic event was witnessed, among others, by Wincenty Witos, Stanisław Wojciechowski, Maciej Rataj, Pomeranian Voivode Stefan Laszewski, Polish envoy to Free City of Danzig Maciej Biesiadecki, General Kazimierz Sosnkowski, Dr Jozef Wybicki, and the "King of the Kashubians, Antoni Abraham".
Main point of the ceremony was marked by a Roman Catholic service, with a sermon told by Reverend Jozef Wrycza.
Flag of the Polish Navy was blessed, and then, to the salvo of 21 guns, it was raised on a mast by sailors Eugeniusz Pławski and Florian Napierala.
On 11 February 1920, a day after the symbolic wedding, Kashubian fishermen invited Haller to Wielka Wies (now Władysławowo), to carry out another ceremony, this time in the open waters of Baltic Sea.
These ceremonies took place from 15 March to 6 April, along the Baltic Sea coast from Dziwnow (Berg Dievenow) to Gdynia (Gdingen).
Colonel Wladyslaw Jurak, who had been a schoolteacher before the war, told the soldiers about the 1920 wedding, and the group spontaneously decided to repeat the ceremony.
Soon afterwards, a number of weddings took place: On 17 March 1945 two fully-armed regiments of uhlans of the First Warsaw Cavalry Brigade stood ready at the main market square at Gryfice (Greifenberg).
Following the order of their commandant, Major Stanislaw Arkuszewski, the soldiers headed towards Mrzeżyno, via Trzebiatow (Treptow an der Rega).
After reaching the coastline, corporal Sochaczewski and uhlan Kobylinski rode their horses into the water, throwing two rings, which they had received from Major Arkuszewski.
Every year, patriotic events take place on 17 March, and the ceremony is repeated by mounted reenactors, with rings thrown into the sea.
On the same day in the evening, soldiers of the 7th Infantry Regiment of the First Polish Army were to take part in the wedding, which was organized by Colonel Piotr Jaroszewicz, who later became the Prime Minister of Poland.
Specially constructed stand was filled with political officers, while the nearby lighthouse was in ruins, blown up by German engineers.
