Harvest Festival in the Płońsk Municipality

The harvest festival in the municipality of Płońsk is one of the largest events in the area covered by the “Friendly Mazovia” Local Action Group. It brings together several thousand participants who are not just the municipality inhabitants, but also come from the wider county area and include Roman Catholic Church officials, government representatives and tourists. In year 2019 there was already the 14th edition of this festival. This event was a special one, since it was also an official festival of the Płock Diocese. It means that it involved not just the community from the Płońsk municipality, but also citizens from a much larger area of the Płock Diocese which includes the entire the Płońsk region. The event held this status for the second time.

Harvest festivals have deep roots in the Polish village tradition. They hark back to pagan times and are linked to the fertility cult later combined with Christianity, which gave these festivities a new meaning. It is a farmers’ celebration, highlighting a year of toil and connections within the Roman Catholic community of a given area.

The harvest festival in the Płońsk municipality combines spiritual elements with entertainment. This year it began with a harvest parade through a village of Szerominek to reach the church of Saint Father Pio in Płońsk. A celebratory field mass was followed by a harvest ceremony that highlighted harvest wreaths presented by delegations from the  region. In 2019 it was the Diocese of Płock. The traditional part of the festivities is the selection of the most beautiful wreath and the best harvest booth.

In 2019 a new element was introduced into the program. In order to promote the “Friendly Mazovia” local brand endorsed by the Local Action Group, its representatives gifted the mayor of the Płońsk municipality, AleksanderJarosławski, with a sculpture of the “Goblin Cholewiak”. As a continuation of this initiative, 11 goblins sculpted by a local artist were placed in municipalities covered by the “Friendly Mazovia” Local Action Group. Each goblin holds in its hands an attribute describing the characteristics of every municipality as presented in the poem “The Goblin Land” (“Skrzatolandia”).

An important part of the harvest festivities are well attended artistic presentations. Typically, these include local ensembles as well as artists from the entire country. In 2019 the local performers included the Youth Brass Ensemble from Sochocin and a group of majorettes called “Diamond” from the Płońsk Culture Town Centre. A very popular Golec Orchestra presented a show on a national level.

Location:Płońsk municipality

Date: September

Organizers:PłońskMunicipal Government

Contact: ph. 23 662-56-35 ext. 47

email: olga.kmiec@ugplonsk.pl