Posts tagged photojournalism
Scenes from a pillow fight
Because there’s a holiday this week (at least for those of us who live in countries with archaic Catholic traditions), I’m feeling somewhat refreshed and jovial, so I’m going to write about something a bit more fun for a change. Namely, the relatively new tradition of the Great Cracovian Pillow Fight*.
It starts out innocently enough. Students from the city’s universities gather at a set date in various corners of the Market Square, armed with pillows and dressed in t-shirt colors corresponding to their academic institution as designated on the event invitation. At the first note of the trumpeter from St. Mary’s marking the hour, they go running, pillows at the ready, towards the designated meeting point. The battle has begun.
At first it’s mild: gentle hits, lots of laughter.
But soon enough, the feathers start flying.
And shit gets intense.
Of course, it’s all in good fun.
Until your expensive lens gets slammed with a stray pillow, anyway.
Or until the cops start arresting people.
Because here’s a not-so-funny detail: the pillow fight was denied a permit by the city, probably on account of the mess that tends to get left behind (see below). So technically, kids can (and did) get citations for participating in an illegal demonstration - 15 tickets and 17 warnings were issued by the municipal authorities, namely for littering and disturbing the peace. Nonetheless, that didn’t spoil the fun for most participants, and there was a clean-up effort afterwards to rid the square of its non-pigeon feathers.
However, it looks like the right to bear pillows is still lacking in Poland.
*It’s not actually called that. But it should be.
Countries like the United States have gay pride marches. In Krakow, we have a Tolerance March every year, which is quite a different affair, because while pride marches proclaim “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it, etc.,” a tolerance march quietly mumbles, “We exist, please stop beating us up the other 364 days of the year.”
This year’s March for Tolerance doubled the traditional route, starting in Krakow’s old Jewish quarter and making its way to the Market Square. Though mostly students and other left-leaning young people take part, the march does draw the occasional celebrity or politician.
The tolerance marchers are surrounded and protected by a ring of policemen, nick-named the “stormtroopers.” At the end of the march, the crowd breaks into chants of “Thank you, police!”
The police protect the marchers from the counter-demonstrators, who generally outnumber the marchers and are mostly angry young men from nationalist parties.
The counter-demonstrators hold signs saying “gayness prohibited” and shout obscenities at the marchers. The ones who come prepared throw eggs, while some others throw chairs or potted plants or whatever else is handy, before they’re restrained by the police.
But it’s not just young neo-facists who are upset by the concept of tolerance. Older Poles, used to completely ignoring the issue under communism, see homosexuals and supporters of tolerance as social deviants, perverts no better than pedophiles, who are corrupting the future of the country.
…but still, every year the march gets bigger, and every year the opposition gets smaller, and every year there’s a little less violence and a little more public support. But this is not a pride march. This is a March for Tolerance.
