Life / Polish Wedding March & Funny Hat [37]

Oczepiny are very common. The extent of what happens though may differ.
The simplest version is I guess for bride to throw the veil by the shoulder while being surrounded by the group of unmaried women, the one that catches the veil wears it for the rest of the evening (or just 10 minutes, it's up to the really), then the same things happen with grooms bowtie. Then newly appointed coplue dance (optional). That's the basic version.

More complcated version can also contain different versions of party games like krzesełka (youtube.com/watch?v=t_-KPmSD7IA), or some kind of funny theather (youtube.com/watch?v=Ba6XoMjt7q8).

In wielkopolska (not sure if it's tradition in other parts of Poland) przyśpiewki were quite common, now being phased out but still happen. I like this part a lot. I tried to find it on youtube but actually didn't find correct version where people line up to the mic, sing przyśpiewka, and then dance with bride/groom depending on gender of the singer. They are often quite offensive, especially to mother in law. My favorite one is "tesciowa, tesiowa, nie otwieraj gęby, bo wezmę kamienia i wyrżnę ci w zęby!" :).

Also in wielkopolska (and some other part of poland) money dance is not common at all, you just give the money in the envelope when you give your wishes at the venue. I had such funny situation when we had śląsko-wielkopolskie wesele in my family when father of the groom insisted on the dance and then showed up with this big pile of 10PLN bills and gave fat stack of money and people around watched in disbelief as they already gave their gifts.

Also gorzko, gorzko is obligatory as is ona temu winna.

And as the rest said, hat thing is not Polish tradition.

Life / Why are Polish people so strange & unusual? [51]

There's some truth to it, but I don't think it's just polish thing, others just hide it better.

Important question to ask is, have you been to Poland and meet actual polish people, or are you talking about Poles in USA?

As to why? I guess communism is very good at setting people against one another, dehumanizing and creating system where you cannot trust anyone.

Work / Is 400000PLN per year a very high salary in Poland? If so, what kind of job can make this money? [33]

This is upper managment kind of money, and no regular position will earn that. Private business or some kind of heavili specialized work connected with big bucks (investment banking, stocks, real estate) could earn that but this is nowhere near common.

IT work is also not even in the ballpark, unless heavily specialized\top managment.

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1040]

1) painting on glass: Holy Mother of Częstochowa.
Glass, oil, stained glass.

Painted by Janina Leś? Leń?

2)basically the same but it's Holy Mother of Calvary.

Life / What do Polish people think of the Asia and Middle East? [86]

define "do well"

Feedback / Is it Polish forum or foreign forum? [159]

WTF are you talking about Ktos?
Pole is not an offensive term?. It's normal term, just like German or American.
Certainly not offensive in Poland!

And btw. "murzyn" is offensive. It should be Murzyn - You should now that, being so sensitive and all.

History / Do Polish people in general dislike Russia or Germany more? [369]

Mireten - that is bs. Don't project your hate on others.
It was written many times here - some do, most don't.

News / Coal-Powered Poland Refuses to "Go Green". EU Ain't Happy. [304]

Money?

Or are you just trolling?

Food / Why Poles not like rice? [87]

Poles like potatoes. They also like rice, and the sachettes that Polsyr mentioned are available on market for probably 15 years now and very popular.

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1040]

They want you to propose 3 topics you'd want to write about (with short explentation) and planned volume of article for each topic.

I'd assume that 12500, 7500 and 5500 are some sort of a standard volume for them.

Edit: haha three responses, all starting with the same words ;) (not on purpouse)

Travel / Sites with interesting photos of Poland [24]

Merged: Photos from Poland - interesting gallery by Zbigniew Wozniak

I found today on wykop.pl information about very interesting gallery.

Tons of great photos, PRL, post-PRL, some recent.

Enjoy.

Photos has been made by Zbigniew Woźniak.

Classifieds / Wedding reception in Katowice, Poland [14]

I'd definitelly recommend finding nice venue, but not a Hotel. Things like Sala Weselna, Bankietowa, rooms in smalish palaces and so on usually offer such things with catering (sometime they don't provide cakes). Problem is that good ones are usually booked two years in advance, that's why people sometimes choose strange wedding dates to fit in. Same thing with bands, usually booked.

As for alcohol 400 bottles of vodka seems an excess, unless we are talking about extremly boozy family. Polish standard is 1 liter of vodka per person (calculated for everyone, including children), it should be enough. Usually you can get a deal with stores for them to accept the leftovers. For last 10 years people usually have some other alcohol available (beer and wine) for young people and not so heavy boozers.

If you're not in situation where all of family is near some area, you can always find a place whith hotel rooms, which comes handy for out -of-towners.

I'd recommend looking for something like this: villanatura.pl/galeria/villa_natura mind it's not a suggestion, it's far away from Katowice, just to show you what type of place I'm talking about.

Love / Are Polish men shy and take things slow? [118]

Gosc, still on your quest heh? ;)

Anyway, this is not Shizuka's thread, it has been merged many times.

Love / Are Polish men shy and take things slow? [118]

Same here.

I think that this might be the biggest reason of his hesitation.
Those things are impossible to hide and if anythings doesn't go perfect...you know how it works.
Also his colleagues could give him hard time.