The District Public Library in Wejherowo is leading the project “The tradition of bowing feretrons during pilgrimages to the Calvary of Wejherowo as an intangible cultural heritage of Kaszuby”. The project received funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage within the framework of the “Folk and Traditional Culture” programme.
The main objective is to prepare the community of bearers to enter the tradition of bowing feretrons on the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The following tasks are planned as part of the project:
- Debates, public consultations and workshops with the participation of bearers, experts and local government officials on the definition of the phenomenon, the identification of the community of bearers, the identification of threats and the drawing up of a plan to counteract them;
- Development of biographies of bearers – former and current members of groups preparing feretron bows. Experts will develop a questionnaire that will be made available to bearers to fill in. Based on the information collected, the biographies will be compiled and published;
- Ethnographic survey conducted among pilgrims to the Calvary of Wejherowo on the values that guide pilgrims coming to the Calvary and the importance of this tradition for the culture and identity of Kaszuby;
- Library and parish archives searches for documents on the history of pilgrimages and figures who have contributed to the survival of the tradition;
- Construction and content filling of a website on the tradition with a digital social archive. The website will include information on the tradition: history and bearers, parishes organising pilgrimages, as well as the results of this project: biographies, transcription of surveys, reports on the debate, public consultations and workshops, as well as a digital publication;
- Conference summarising the project;
- Writing and publishing of a digital and hard copy publication (500 copies, approx. 160 pages) edited by Prof. Katarzyna Smyk. The publication will be linked to a web application.
Scope of publication:
- Introduction
- The role of pilgrimages in popular culture
- The history of pilgrimages (the result of queries)
- How to protect the tradition of bowing feretrons?
- Biographical entries of the offenders
- Voice of pilgrims on the meaning of indulgences and bowing feretrons in their lives
- Documentation of debates, public consultations and workshops
- Photographs from the 2023 pilgrimage and selected historical photos collected from the community archive
- Bibliography (with particular reference to Wejherowo Calvary pilgrimages)
- English summary.
