Szymborze is the only town where the custom of przywołówki is annually celebrated in the present day. The members of the Bachelors’ Club Association are involved in it, as for them, the membership in the club and their active participation in this Easter event is often a family tradition. Formerly, to become a member of the Association one had to be at least 21 years old, now the age limit is 18, but the rule of accepting only men respected in Szymborze and never punished by law is still in place.
In 2017 przywołówki event was organised for the 185th time. Their course is the same every year.
For two weeks before Easter the bachelors take ransom for the chosen girls from local boys and they create a list of girls to call out. On Easter Saturday in the evening przywołówki texts are written and then they are delivered and pronounced the next day.
For many years on Easter Sundays the bachelors have been accompanied by the SOLINO Brass Band of Inowrocław Salt Mines and the calling out is preceded by the holy mass celebrated in the intention of the Club’s late members. The speeches made from the stand by the president do not change as well and he says the following words to the audience:
Dear Citizens of Szymborze and the surroundings! Today we are celebrating our old custom, inherited after our ancestors who passed it to us and urged us to follow them. Despite difficulties and troubles, the Committee is working persistently with the motto: Bringing Honour to our Ancestors!
And now we are asking our dear Citizens not to disturb and to listen quietly to what is going to happen. And a girl who is not too happy shall think about her last year – whether she deserved that or not.
After the speech the przywołówki texts are pronounced and they are dedicated to girls for whom the ransom has been previously paid announcing how much water would be poured on them the next day, for example a glass, a bottle, a jar or a bucket. At this point the bachelors often show their creativity and a sense of humour mentioning on the one side a pinch, a thimble or bottle cap and then, on the other, Szymborze pond, Gopło lake or even the Baltic sea or the Atlantic ocean.
The addressees of przywołówki are also local young men who did not support the Club’s activity and did not buy the girls out. For them there are longer texts which are humorous, often sarcastic. They mention funny, sometimes compromising situations from the lives of these young people. Towards the end the president says:
In closing today’s ceremony we are reminding you, the girls, that dyngus, according to the resolution of the Bachelors’ Committee, is starting at six o’clock in the morning, Therefore, we are warning you not to be hiding in wardrobes, barns, basements and attics, and just open the doors in peace and wait for being sprinkled with Committee water. And the girl who does not observe our rules will be bathed in a barrel of dust, and additionally, we will put her name in the black book for the next year!
On Easter Monday the bachelors visit girls to fulfil their promises and pour water or perfume over them.
Each year the custom of przywołówki gathers a lot of people, not only the citizens of Szymborze, but also of Inowrocław and other towns. Young people who are directly affected by this custom, treat it indulgently, however, most of them realise that they participate in supporting the local Easter tradition as did their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.
The activities of the Bachelors’ Club Association were appreciated in 2004 by being awarded the Oskar Kolberg Honorary Award. In 2016 ‘przywołówki dyngusowe in Szymborze’ was registered on the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage as the first in Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodeship.
Przywołówki 2017,
realisation: Maciej Piątek, ino.online
Interview with Paweł Małachowski from Szymborze,
realisation: Hanna M. Łopatyńska,
Bartłomiej Oleszek, 2016 (MET)
