Marie Curie

Sabbatical year

With the relatives in the country

After the studies Manya thought she should look for work, so that Bronya could get a chans to go to Paris and study to be a physician. Mr Sklodowski did not think this was the best solution. He thought Manya needed to relax after her persistent period at school and he sent Manya to the relatives in the country.  She would now get some time to think about her future and to do other things than studying. This sabbatical year 1883 - 1884 was wonderful for Manya. For the first and the last time in her life she spent time only on playing, dancing, riding and enjoying life. The love of nature were awakened here and it lasted for all of her life. The property of her relatives was beside the Carpathians and her cousins were full of pranks. Manya got on tremendously well. She did not spend as much as one thought of school or work. Dances, festivals, feasts and balls succeeded each other. She even had been around in a "kulig". In a letter to her best friend back home in Warszaw she describes it: " I have been on a ´kulig´... You can´t imagine how fun such a feast is! Especially if the girls are beautiful and the male partners are elegant. My Min costume was very stylish ...We had an enchanting great time. There were a big amount of young gentlemen from Kraków invited, very handsome boys who were dancing excellent. It is really rare to meet such skilful partners. At eight o´clock in the morning we stepped in for the last dance - a ´white´ mazurka ."

What is a "kulig"?

It is not easy to describe a "kulig", but this is about how you could imagine it:

The folks in the house is dressing up in colourful folk costumes and a carriage or a sleigh arrives. Then everyone travels together with some playing musicians from estate to estate, where they stop and dance and eat for a while, to break up on a given signal and continue to the next place. Since the people in the estates that are visited also joins the party it will be a big crowd of  people that finally arrives to the festival place where the actual ball is taking place. The travel to that place can take a couple of days, and the fiest another day, so in order to have the energy for it, you have to enjoy yourself very much all the time. But Manya had the time of her life, guaranteed.

Author: Katrin Nilsson