"We want Barbórka to exist even if there are no mines any more,” said Beata Piecha-van Schagen from the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom, southern Poland, which helped prepare the submission.
Barbórka customs are already included on Poland’s National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The UNESCO application aims to extend that recognition to the global level.
Every year on December 4, the feast day of Saint Barbara, patron saint of miners, mining communities in Silesia and other regions mark Barbórka with brass-band parades, special church services and lively banquets.
Miners wear dark formal uniforms and a distinctive plumed cap known as a czako.
Barbórka has long marked both the symbolic beginning and end of the year for mining communities.
“It is a time of joy and of celebrating that another year has been survived in health,” Piecha-van Schagen told Poland's PAP news agency.
She added that a place on the UNESCO list would bring prestige but would also create concrete obligations. Communities and institutions would be expected to safeguard the traditions and adapt them to today’s challenges, rather than freeze them in the past.
Work on the application began in 2019 and covers far more than the day's celebrations.
It gathers a wide range of customs linked to mining, including the formal miners’ uniform, traditional greetings used underground, elements of professional jargon, music played by brass bands, and the folklore and rituals connected with miners’ academies and local ceremonies.
The nomination was submitted to the secretariat of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2024.
A decision was expected this year, but the application is still waiting for assessment.
“We have not had a decision this year,” Piecha-van Schagen said. “We need to be patient and wait for the deliberations of the committee. In the meantime, we continue to work with the bearers of the tradition, documenting customs and educating younger generations.”
The Barbórka application is international. Groups from Poland, Austria and Luxembourg prepared it together.
On the Polish side, participants include mines in the Upper Silesia region and the cities of Wałbrzych, Bochnia and Wieliczka, brass bands from mining communities, and descendants of miners from the former silver mines near the southeastern city of Tarnów.
Austrian partners come from the regions of Styria and Carinthia, including the town of Bad Bleiberg, where mining has ceased but St. Barbara's Day customs still play a role in local life.
According to Piecha-van Schagen, these foreign examples show that mining traditions can remain strong even after mines close.
In Austria and Luxembourg, parades, miners’ church services and festive gatherings still take place, even though the extractive industry has been sharply reduced.
“This proves that Barbórka can keep its authenticity and social meaning in Poland as well if we support the custodians of the tradition,” she argued.
She also pointed out that a UNESCO listing has a double effect. On one hand, it gives communities a sense that their way of speaking, celebrating and making things is valued at an international level. On the other, it brings concrete duties.
The bearers of the tradition commit themselves to keeping it alive, and local governments and cultural institutions receive a clear signal that they can and should support these efforts.
This support is especially important in Poland, where coal mines are closing and entire mining districts are being reshaped.
Piecha-van Schagen recalled that the restructuring of the 1990s led to the break-up of many mining communities. Since the early 2000s, however, she has observed growing awareness among the people who still carry on with the traditions. More and more of them actively try to preserve customs that were once taken for granted. she says.
Piecha-van Schagen believes that the future of Barbórka in Poland depends on cooperation with these local guardians.
She noted that even if there are no operating mines by 2050, the holiday can continue, as shown by the experience of partner communities abroad.
What matters most for authenticity, she said, is the shared joy of celebrating together and the sense of belonging that comes with it.
The UNESCO application also includes education plans.
Each participating group was required to prepare a safeguarding program, with teaching of younger generations as a central element.
“This is a huge field of action for local governments, cultural institutions and schools,” Piecha-van Schagen said. “Children and young people can learn about the history of mining and the traditions connected with it.”
St. Barbara is revered in Catholic tradition by people whose work exposes them to violent danger. She remains a popular saint, best known today as the patron of those who work with explosives, a role linked to the association of her legend with lightning.
After gunpowder became widely used in mining in the17th century, she came to be seen as the patron saint of miners, tunnellers and other underground workers.
She is also venerated in other Christian traditions such as the Anglican, Greek Orthodox and Lutheran Churches.
In Polish mining culture, the dress uniform is full of stories and symbolism, rather than just being a smart black suit. Worn on Barbórka, and at major life events such as jubilees, some weddings and funerals, it has become a visible sign of belonging to the mining community.
Many legends and traditions are associated with the uniform. For example, the ceremonial jacket has 29 gold buttons, arranged on the front, the chest tabs and the sleeves.
Tradition says this number recalls the age of St. Barbara at the time of her martyr’s death.
As the exact dates of her life are not historically certain, this is treated more as a symbolic story than a proven fact, but it is widely repeated in mining regions and in school materials about Barbórka.
The uniform is almost always worn with a czako, the tall miners’ cap. On the front it carries the classic mining emblem of crossed tools, the hammer (pyrlik) and pick (żelazko), which refer to the oldest hand tools used underground and, by extension, to hard physical work and craft skill.
The czako is a direct descendant of the military shako, a tall, cylindrical cap that spread through European armies in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and whose name comes from the Hungarian csákó.
From the side rises a rooster-feather plume. According to mining lore, this plume grew out of a purely practical gadget: in the past miners kept a little feather brush tucked into their hatband to sweep rock dust out of blast holes before setting explosives.
Over time the brush turned into a decorative plume on the dress cap.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP, dzieje.pl