A few words about highlanders
“Highlanders are one of the most delicious varieties of the Polish breed. The people are just brilliant, wonderfully fit for civilization. Extraordinary intelligence combined with great prudence, but not killing or quick to understand, nor sensitivity to external phenomena and influences: inborn refinement of manners and relations, prowess, energy and efficiency of actions are the qualities of highlanders, that hit all people, starting with Staszic " – this is what Stanisław Barabasz wrote about highlanders, the first director of the School of Wood Industry in Zakopane.
Author of New Athens, the first Polish encyclopedia, famous for its simple definition of a horse, Father Benedykt Chmielowski wrote: “Highlanders are an oat people who live only on bread, a musket as a celebrity who wears an ax and an ax ". Currently, the highlander is perceived through the prism of fair and souvenir folk art, as a person with an aquiline nose, Dressed in a hat with a feather, richly embroidered pants, sarcastic, a white shirt and a stink, in the Kierpcze, with a stick in hand, girded with a wide belt. We also heard something about the famous highlander fights, everyone who has rented private accommodation knows the greed of gaspers, music and dialect often hang on the ears. Certainly, the inhabitants of Podhale are proud to stand out from the flails, that is the city tourist Colorado beetle, and "Lachów" – neighbors from the Nowy Sącz region.
What is their difference really??
Origin
Two main factors contributed to the emergence of Podhale's culture. The first is the migration of lowland agricultural people to the foothills, both from the north, and from the south. The basic wave of migration has been going uphill since at least the 11th century. from the land of Krakow and Sandomierz, inhabiting the valleys. The Tatra Mountains in the 14th-15th centuries. fell under the influence of the Wallachian pastoral organization, which from the 13th century. has spread to the area of the Carpathians. Means, that the Polish population was mixed up with those migrating from the south and east, from the territory of Transylvania, groups of Wallachian shepherds. In practice, they were Romanians, possibly with an admixture of blood from the Albanian and South Slavic people. From the end of the 14th century. the shepherds slowly moved to permanent settlement and were Slavicized as a result of the collision with the rural population. Crossing and interpenetration of mentality, mores, style of life, therefore in the eighteenth century. to, which is referred to as the highlander culture of Podhale. Similarly, other mountain groups - Hutsuls - were formed, Lemkos, Boykos and Slovak highlanders. Specific pride comes from marking separateness. Until recently, calling a highlander "Lach" was considered an insult.