GET-TOGETHERS OF HORSE ARCHERS

IN POLAND

Held since 2004, the "Żurawiejki" is an annual get-together of people keen on horse archery. It is an event open for everybody, regardless of their skill in horse riding or archery. The purpose of the "Żurawiejki" is to bring together people doing or wanting to do the difficult, yet beautiful art of horse archery, have fun and exchange experiences.
We hold the four-day-long event every year in June or at the end of May, i.e. when the weather is likely to be good and still before summer holidays.

THE NEXT EVENT IS SCHEDULED FOR 4rd-7th JUNE 2015 (Thursday, 4rd June is a day off work in Poland!).

This was the first and for a long time the biggest meeting of horse archers in Poland, with 50-60 participants from all over the country and often from abroad. I can tel with pride, that Witówko was the place where today's Polish Horseback Archery was formed, as you can see it today.
Times change, though, and nowadays most archers can meet during big, international competitions (most noticeably Grunwald Battlefield event, held 1-3 of May) or take part in numerous Horseback Archery Classes or Eastern Archery Classes. Therefore we decided to change the place and to some extent also the purpose of "Żurawiejki" meeting.
Of course, we still want to practice both on-foot and mounted archery, mostly in "field" or ""combat" version, like renowned "polish track" and similar competition styles. But also we want to concentrate on things AROUND historical horseback archery: using other weapons, like sabre, spear and kalkan shield together with the bow, camping, cooking on the open fire and similar bushcraft activities, moving with pack horses etc.

If you are interested in such activities, join us!

I guess it is high time I explained where the event's name came from. The "Żurawiejki" are short, two-verse cavalry songs (texts in Polish only), sung in turn to the same tune and followed by identical chorus. They recollect on a cavalry regiment or squadron, a person or event usually in a funny or spiteful way.
The name comes from the Polish word "żuraw" (meaning a crane) - a bird of passage symbolizing our volatile memory. Singing "żurawiejki" was a very popular custom in Polish pre-war cavalry and is still being cultivated within the circles of Polish horse-lovers.

As you can see, the name had nothing to do with archery, but it somehow clung to our get-together (which originally was not very sophisticatedly called a "get-together"), perhaps because it also happened to be the name of a website on which I used to put information for participants and post-meeting stories and relations.
Or was it because of the participants singing "żurawiejki" by the bonfire until late at night.
Or perhaps because of the cranes strolling on the paddock in the morning.

Anyway, you can say that now, after all these years, the term "żurawiejki" has become somehow connected with horse archery and is known both in Poland and abroad (also in some faraway countries - see the proof on the right ;-).

If you want to participate or have any questions or remarks, feel free to CONTACT me.

I would like to thank Michał Sanczenko for his help translating those texts into passable English;
drawings © Norbert Kopczyński 2008