This past Saturday night, thousands gathered along the Vistula River in front of Wawel Castle in Krakow for a dragon parade. The size of the crowd that gathered to see the dragon parade stunned me. A coworker at Google had invited me to come to the festival, and I had accepted, expecting a fun Krakovian parade around the statue. In reality, the so-called parade was much more.
As legend has it, many years ago, a dragon, Smok Wawelski, appeared in a cave in Wawel Hill next to the Vistula River, where the famous Wawel Castle stands today. The dragon tormented the town, eating children.
In some versions of the story, the town had to sacrifice girls to appease the dragon, so the king’s daughter was in danger. The king challenged the town to kill the dragon, the prize being his beautiful daughter’s hand in marriage and inheriting the throne upon his death.
After many noble fighters tried their hand and failed, a poor boy named Krak offered his services. He stuffed sheep with spices and sulfur and placed them by the dragon’s cave. When the dragon awoke and found the sheep, he ate them all. He was overcome by a terrible thirst and rushed to the river Vistula, drinking so much he exploded. Krak married the princess and became the ruler of the town that was named after him – Krakow.
This ancient legend is still celebrated today with a fire-breathing dragon near the legendary cave. The metal dragon, installed in 1970, breathes fire on a regular basis or whenever “SMOK” is texted to 7168. It is one of the more popular tourist destinations in Krakow.
The dragon itself is a bony-looking structure with six arms and is far less impressive than the festival celebrated in its honor. Every year in June the city holds a two-day festival in honor of Krak and Smok Wawelski. This past weekend, June 7 and 8, children celebrated the legendary dragon with a parade of monster sculptures they had built. The lucky winners of the contest walked their creations along the Vistula River before the night celebrations.
On Saturday, large floats of dragons and other monsters operated by actors in the Theatre Grotesque paraded on boats. The huge floats (think Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade but with Polish monsters) featured silly dragons, fierce dragons and sea monsters set on a background of fireworks, a light show, a water show and music, with a different display for each float.
The show lasted about 45 minutes and was perhaps one of the most fantastic light or firework shows I have ever witnessed. The show is exactly the type of thing I had hoped to see by coming here – something totally fantastic that I could not see anywhere else.
At home in America we have our celebrations – New Year’s, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, etc. – but this particular event seemed to combine elements from celebrations around the world with a Krakovian spirit and a Disney-quality light show.
Sonny Franckel is a senior computer science major and will be writing summer columns on her experience interning with Google in Krakow. She can be reached at sfrancke@umd.edu.
