The sun was shining, the sounds of laughter and polka music filled the air and the crowds that flocked to Polish Town in Riverhead on this warm summer Saturday took in the sights, sounds and aromas of the 41st annual Polish Street Fair and Festival.
The two-day event, put on by the Polish Town Civic Association on the third weekend in August since 1975, draws thousands of visitors to the ethnic enclave known as Polish Town USA to enjoy traditional Polish foods and beverages, polka music and more than 250 vendors selling all manner of crafts, jewelry, novelties and – well, just about everything under the sun.
The festival gets underway each year with a Polish-language Mass at St. Isidore’s Church on Pulaski Street. Then a wedding party, dressed in the colorful traditional garb worn to celebrate such occasions in their European homeland, gathers on the steps of the church for the annual re-enactment of a traditional Polish wedding.
Led by the reigning Polish Town queen, Claudia Zacharewicz of Jamesport, the wedding party marched down Pulaski Street to the lawn of the Pulaski Street School, where they took the showmobile stage for the re-enactment — narrated in both English and Polish. The ceremony featured vows, dancing and the unbraiding and shearing of the bride’s hair, a traditional symbol of her change in status.
Polish Town Civic’s Karen Fleischman, longtime coordinator of the annual wedding ceremony, explained the ceremonies and the traditions to the spectators gathered on the lawn — including how the ribbons worn on the young ladies’ dresses indicated the number of suitors they had dated.
Today’s bride and groom, Milena Chrzanowska and Mariusz Wiszowaty are actually newlyweds, just married a week ago. Photo: Denise Civiletti
This year’s wedding had an interesting twist: the bride and groom really were a bride and groom. Milena Chrzanowska, 22, and Mariusz Wiszowaty, 25, were married Aug. 8. But today’s ceremony was still something of a dress rehearsal for the young immigrants. They tied the knot in a civil ceremony and plan to return to their homeland for a traditional Polish ceremony next year.
The street fair and festival continues all day Sunday.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti
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