A celebration of Polish heritage and community cooperation took place in Dundee on Saturday afternoon at St Joseph’s primary school.
Children and adults came together to celebrate openness, appreciation and better understanding between communities, as part of a nationwide event set up by the Polish embassy.
A show, titled I Love You Poland, was performed by primary school children which featured presentations on some of the world’s most renowned Poles, including Mikolaj Kopernik, Fryderyk Chopin, Marie Curie-Sklodowska, Pope John Paul II and footballer Robert Lewandowski.
A buffet of traditional Polish food was held after the event, which saw more than one hundred Dundee residents attend.
Karolina Lewandowska, who teaches at the Polish Saturday School in Dundee, said the celebration was symbolic of the strengthening bonds between the Polish community and the city.
She said: “We hope this celebration of Polish heritage will continue to grow each year in Dundee, as it grows into a wider event across Scotland and the UK.
“The idea of this festival is to help bring all of the communities in the city together, and is a symbol of partnership. There is a rich Polish heritage in Dundee, with a number of the community coming to Scotland as soldiers during the Second World War, or after 2004 when Poland joined the EU.
“It would be great if next year the event could be even bigger.”
Dundee City Council joined in celebrations over the weekend also, by flying the Polish flag from the front of the chamber building.
The Polish community in the UK is a mixture of the descendants of those wartime and anti-communist exiles and those who decided to move to Britain after Poland joined the EU in 2004, according to the Polish embassy.
The May 6 date of the festival coincides with a two historic days in the Polish calendar, with May 3 being a national celebration of Poland’s constitution proclamation – the oldest codified constitution in Europe, and May 2 being Polish diaspora day.
Polish nationals make up the largest minority group in the UK, with an estimated 984,000 Polish people living in the country. The Polish embassy said it was proud to highlight that 92% of eligible nationals in the UK were in employment or further education.
