Siuda Baba

Siuda Baba is an old Polish folk custom, celebrated on Easter Monday and surviving today in only a handful of villages surrounding Kraków.

The character of Siuda Baba is performed by a local man who dresses up as a shabbily clothed woman whose face is blackened with soot.

Once a year, in early spring, the priestess protecting the holy fire left the temple walls to search for a successor.

The inhabitants of Lednica Górna name different locations for the holy spring and temple: most frequently the sources of the Leda stream.

Christian elements have later been added to the legend, and as a result the Siuda Baba enactment is presented on Easter Monday in Lednica Górna and in the nearby city of Wieliczka.

The group meets at the Gypsy's home, where they don their costumes: Krakowiacy wear traditional regional folk attire; Siuda Baba – an old, dirty skirt, a necklace made of potatoes, chestnuts, or wooden beads, a scarf used as a pouch for a box with the soot-lotion mixture.

If they go to people they don't know, the Gypsy, after cracking his whip, politely asks the hosts to allow the group to enter.

Refusing them might result in minor negative consequences: marking the door handle, mailbox or other household items with the soot/lotion mixture.

and if the answer is affirmative, the Krakowiacy sing Easter-themed songs, shaking the cart and the jingles attached to their belts.

The Lord's Mother went to a meadow for some water... Then suddenly a line about Siuda Baba is inserted in the song lyrics in an unexpected moment.

Local residents who are well acquainted with the tradition believe that having one's face blackened by Siuda Baba brings good luck for the coming year; a smeared girl may expect to get married soon.