Poland belongs to those rare societies in Europe that did not go through sharp religious or ideological divisions. When such divisions occur in a family, they weaken or even break family ties. Thus the XVI century Reformation, and subsequently the great French revolution of the XVIII century disintegrated families. Some authors are of the opinion that small families appeared in Europe as early as the time of the Reformation, above all in Germany and Scandinavia. Families then split and became isolated from one another because of denominational differences, or consequent upon unforeseen social promotions or demotion. In Poland, even if denominational or, in the XIX century, ideological differences appeared, they did not evoke such radical family divisions as in the countries of Western Europe. Family ties turned out to be stronger than religious or ideological differences. A much more important factor that differentiated families was the attitude towards invaders and imposed governments: in principle Poles avoided contact with those family members, relatives or cousins who collaborated with alien authorities.

It is worth mentioning a certain particularity of Polish family law that supported the family. In Western countries all family property passed into the hands of one heir, most often the first-born son. His brothers and sisters had to content themselves with some form of lifetime endowment, and either to leave the family home or be maintained there by their elder brother. Even if this law efficiently ordered matters of interitance and was economically advantageous for many family members, it could cause a sense of injustice and distance towards the closest family members and dampen family ties. According to Polish law, whose beginnings are to be sought in pre-Christian times, family property belonged to all its members, rather than it to just one heir. It was divided among all the children and all had equal rights to it. A sense of family and a related sense of justice clearly predominated over economic calculation. Hence fragmentation of family property in Poland was always greater than in Germany or France. This is true till this day, but family ties remain tight.

The home plays an immense role in a Polish family. The contemporary model has been shaped gradually and is reflected in many records. It is diversified and went through various stages of development. In the distant past it was characterize best by a nobleman’s house or mansion. This particular model was overcome by other social layers and influenced other types of homes: the intelligentsia home, peasant home or worker home.

That tells us stories of ancient days and deeds

Familiar sight of moss-grown threshold;

It welcomes you from all your thorny ways

The Polish home is closely related to the Polish nation. This relation deepens and acquires its specific traits especially in the period of partitions and subsequently during the Nazi occupation as well as during the domination by the Communist regime. Maurycy Mochnacki, analyzing the situation of Polish society at the time of the November uprising (1831) states that the enslaved nation found a special form of life, a "home existence" or a "being-in-the-family" that gave it the possibility of opposing despotism. The nation gained a special power and was transformed in the inner strength stored in the "fathers’ nest," that is, in the family. This "inner way of being" conditioned the survival of the nation, and became a source of its capacity for renewal, independent of the form of political existence which had been lost. Mochnacki says that it became a feature distinguishing the Polish culture from the cultures of the invader states. Those cultures, based on despotic systems unlike the Polish culture, did not survive the decomposition of their state forms, for they did not develop an "organic way of being," that is, home and family. Polish homes, as proves the author of Powstanie narodu polskiego, bear the whole mystery of Polish insurrections, for they managed, through their proper system of values ("home virtues"), to educate a free people who avenged despotism, and to preserve the inner, domestic history of the nation.

Adam Mickiewicz developed his conception of the Polish home in a similar manner. He based his theory of home on a conviction that in the situation of division of culture into official and hidden forms earlier ways of life and customs undergo essential transformations. The home privatized and absorbed what had been destroyed or suppressed in public life. Thus, to a certain degree it lost its character as a quiet nest, but introduced instead new values, preserving and creating above all an "inner home tradition". Mickiewicz wrote about it, among others, in the text "On the National Spirit" (O duchu narodowym -- 1832). Homes, like churches and cemeteries, became special places. They preserved tradition, memory and faith, forces that, according to Mickiewicz, are most essential in the process of vivifying and sustaining national feelings. "Hence, it is easy to prove," he wrote, e.g.,

According to Mickiewicz, in a home that preserves the national memory the living or spoken language has a particular role. It is, as he wrote, the "content of its whole historical and family life"; it constitutes its unique climate and testifies to the deepest bonds of the nation. Oral tales, songs, legends, stories and poems preserved the memory of ancient and new events, carried forward living truths, and constructed a moral world of free people.

The pattern of domestic behavior was due to faith in the existence of deep relations between Providence and the earthly world of action. The entire model of Polish culture had, according to Mickiewicz, its roots in religion; it is there that the nation found the strength necessary to overcome the adversities of its history. "Faith in direct connections between the supernatural world and the earthly domain, he wrote, constituted the moral and political strength of Polish society. There was a need to appeal to this faith whenever the nation’s leaders wanted to find the force for resistance or the strength for action." Persistence in the Catholic faith supported also the indissolubility and continuity of some forms of domestic life, influencing the consistency of families and their spiritual bonds. National life was specifically intertwined with religious life, drawing from it support and its highest sanction.

The author of Pan Tadeusz thought that the Polish home needs heroic elements, and that family life is supported by the great acts of its fathers and sons. They constitute the realm of "living" -- not just of theoretical -- truths. Heroes and saints should be held in "life-giving" reverence.

The domestic life of Poles in Mickiewicz’s conception should have an heroic style, bringing to the fore Poland’s exceptional destiny and history and its relation to great ideals. A particular role in shaping this heroic style of the Polish homes was ascribed to women by the poet, especially in his lectures on Slavic literature.

The ideals of family developed in Poland had some influence on other cultures, for instance on Slovak culture. Among the writings of Ludovit Štur (1815-1856), father of the Slovak movement of national rebirth, one text is entitled Conventional and Public Life (1845), evidently inspired by the Polish reflection on the home culture in the period of enslavement. Štur developed his conception of home in the conditions of "an enslaved land" and nation. It cannot be an egoistic home, gathering to celebrate only one’s dear little family, but one that would form its members as a "civil community". Home is to prepare family members for heroic acts, and develop in them resistance against enslavement. Štur made a sharp critique of homes developing only such simple, basic virtues as love of a peaceful life, assiduousness, provident care of other family members and docility. Such patterns lead to selfishness and lack of interest in matters of a higher rank; they cause spiritual depravation and bring about a slave mentality. Selfish homes cultivate specific customs, cherishing mainly events of family life: baptisms, weddings, guest receptions, burials, etc. According to him in more developed and spiritually more advanced countries these matters occupy a more modest position in family life and are celebrated "simply and shortly". Homes should stress in their customs acts that are significant for national life, thus resisting the threat of slave mentality. Štur, just as Mochnacki and Mickiewicz, developed a postulate of deepening domestic life and of relating it to public life and matters. Home life should constitute a basis generating noble acts and the "higher unity" which is indispensable for maintaining and developing national identity.

As time went on customs changed, as well as the ceremonies associated with familial and religious feasts: Christmas, Easter, All Saints and All Souls Day. Especially Christmas Eve, so much celebrated in Polish homes and families, in the post-insurrectional period changed its traditional spontaneous joy with suppers where the entire family met, filling the house with joyful chatter. Many families experienced heavy losses (after the 1863 uprising in Lithuania the repression introduced by the general-governor, Michail Muraviov, called Vieshatiel ("the Hanger"), afflicted almost every family). So on this day they recalled especially those who had been killed or were absent. Empty seats were left for them at the table, letters and poems were read, past events were recalled, the Polish motive dominated moods and memories. The feast of Christmas began to be associated with faith in regaining liberty; celebrants mixed Christmas carols with patriotic songs. This was so in the country as well as in various places of exile, wherever Polish patriots were present. The custom of singing Christmas carols together with patriotic songs at the table Christmas Eve has been preserved till this day.

Some paintings from the series represent house interiors and doorways. Wincenty Pol devoted a special commentary to the home. He drew attention to the fact that thresholds and front galleries played a special role in the architecture of Polish noble mansions. They were related to the way of living of small communities, welcoming and saying good-bye to their members. Going out to the gallery meant cordiality, hospitality, friendship, joy. Passing the threshold of the house obliged its masters to a particular care of the guest, according to the saying "When a guest comes, God comes into the house".

W. Pol wrote about the function of front galleries in Polish houses:

Chapels and altars constituted an indispensable element of domestic life, gathering families everyday and focusing their thoughts on family and patriotic matters. Memoirs from that period also report the phenomenon of an increasing influence of religion on family life. There are significant differences between domestic religiosity of the end of the XVIII century and the second half of the XIX century. This concerns in particular these homes where only women were left. The atmosphere of tension, fear, threat and hope found expression in faith in God, in His love and power.

Household religious and patriotic customs were shaped to a great extent by mothers of families. In appreciation of their merits in this domain they were given the name of Polish Mother (Matka Polka). Mothers combined in themselves traditions of the culture of noble mansions, Christian religion and folk culture.

Polish houses, set in country landscapes, were bound with the Polish land. On this land their foundations were raised, and there they lasted to the end, sharing the land’s destiny in times of partitions and later in the context of the post partition period. One can speak about a particular axiological indissolubility of home, house, land, and landscape in the Polish noble culture. The consistency of all these elements was strengthened through reference to the divine order of the world. The Catholic religion strengthened Slavic bonds linking man to the soil, nature, and to one’s home. Noble customs preserved many rites and patterns of behavior related to this axiological sphere (the significance of thresholds, kissing the ground, sowing rites, farewell and welcome rites, attachment to yard, trees, etc.).

These expressed a vivid need of dwelling among objects and signs that were especially dear, recalling a reality of which Poles were deprived, as well as its world of values. At the same time, these objects indicated the ongoing process of a certain stereotypization of the symbolic sphere in an enslaved culture. A certain group of symbols separated itself from the others, symbols that were always valid and vivid were recalled and functioned in the common consciousness. They cocreated a closed world, characterized by its peculiar signs, fully comprehensible and felt only by members of the community inflicted by misfortune.

The process of transmitting cultural values from one generation to another in Polish homes from the time of partition did not end upon regaining liberty. Only the formulas and stylistic accents of patriotic customs changed; family groups interested in participating in national traditions even widened.

Thusfar we have analyzed above all noble mansions as the most "genotypical" for other types of homes. Country houses, as well as the emerging intelligentsia and worker homes, remained in the sphere of influence of the mansion culture. Especially country and worker homes were in position to generate a common cultural language of behavior and symbols integrating the nation. Memoirs of authors coming from the szlachta (noble) layer provide interesting materials for understanding the penetration of the noble into other cultures. J. Kitowicz wrote of peasant homes in his "Description of Mores". The "dwellings of the minor szlachta did not differ much from peasant cabins," but reflected the value patterns of noble mansions. The depth and stages of these similarities were dictated by the rhythm of history, general wellbing, scope of rights and possibilities of participation in the exchange of values.

The symbolic cultures of the noble mansions and peasant cabins differed. Many customs and patriotic objects remained illegible for the peasant culture and needed translation into a simplified language for reception into the different surroundings. Servants’ halls, churches, taprooms, dramatic folk spectacles, religious feasts and the accompanying indulgences, pilgrimages, processions, etc. worked out specific simplified codes able to carry on the patriotic values of the nobility. Fidelity to the faith of the ancestors, to soil, and to family were essential components that helped to introduce the patriotic values of the szlachta homes into village cabins. Peasant homes were unable to create the whole complicated "patriotic theater". The peasants’ Poland was the land near their cabins. It was marked by crucifixes standing by the roads, by village churches with adjacent cemeteries, and by mansions hidden behind clusters of trees.

The XIX century and the subsequent period of regaining the Polish state brought a considerable influx of memoirs written by peasants (also by emigrants) and of peasant literary activity. Further, the destiny of peasant homes was more closely related to national history. New generations of peasants engaged more and more intensively their villages and cabins in Polish affairs, the more so as they were able to produce their own leaders and authors. A new value emerged: the sense of honor and responsibility for Polish destiny. These values, previously typical of the intelligentsia and szlachta, came now more and more strongly to the fore in peasant and worker homes.

Worker homes appeared last and were not formed in proximity to the mansion culture, as was the case of peasant homes. Yet they assimilated (often through genealogies of fathers and mothers) values and traditions proper both to nobility and to the peasants. This process, as it seems, was characteristic for the period between the 1st and the 2nd World Wars (for instance among railway workers, especially in families of enginers, ironworkers, better qualified employees, plant supervisors, and construction foremen).

As family values and the life of Polish homes manifest themselves in the most different ways, it is not possible here to present them all. We will therefore point out only those which seem the most typical of present Polish culture.

a. Various studies made in the seventies and the eighties indicate that the highest values of the young generation of Poles are a happy marriage and a happy family life. These prevail notably over all other values chosen by this group. Young people, irrespective of whether they come from happy or unhappy families, in a greater number than in Western countries desire to establish their own families and to have children.

b. The family has a decisive influence in shaping the life attitude and the system of values and norms of the younger generation. Research indicates that the transmission of culture in families is broad in content. Various family customs are maintained, even if they are no longer fully understood by the younger generation. Here the oldest generation plays a great role. Even if grandfathers, or, as it is increasingly the case, great-grandfathers, have lost much of their former formal authority over their adult children and grandchildren, they still enjoy considerable moral authority. Especially strong ties bind them with their grandchildren. A considerably "intergenerational arch" is a frequent phenomenon, that is, children have deeper contacts with their grandparents than with their parents.

c. Circles of relatives have shrunk in the last years, with fewer members than before, but the bonds maintained with the relatives who are left are richer in content and more emotionally intense. This is a matter of a selection of relatives. Close contact is kept with those relatives who are close by some other reason than bonds of blood alone: proximity of habitation, ease of interpersonal contacts, common interests, or shared business affairs. In spite of this selectivity, contacts with other relatives also are sustained, but these are sporadic and limited to family feasts such as weddings, burials and less frequently baptisms. Namedays and birthdays gather more and more persons from outside the families as more friends are invited. Weddings and burials gather the whole family of several dozen people, often more than a hundred. There is a deeply interiorized duty to invite these events all family members, including those with whom no relations otherwise are maintained, or with whom only occasional letters are exchanged. Family bonds pertain to the dead as well as to the living. No other Western people visits the tombs of their dead as generally as in Poland: on the All Saints Day trains and roads are overcrowded as almost all Poles travel to visit the graves of their dead.

d. The family is the institution where, above all and in the first place, aid is sought in crises and in difficult situations, rather than in specialized institutions as is the case in many Western countries. It is also the family that helps in looking for apartments, jobs or other aspects of life.

e. These strong and vivid family bonds, broader than just a circle of parents and children, make the so-called nuclear family model unpopular in Poland. Much more often than in Western countries the so-called broader family pattern operates in its two basic forms: a) as a multigenerational family living under the same roof, where adult family members have a common or separate household; and b) as a multigenerational family in which adult children live separately, but in the vicinity, and remain in constant touch, visiting and helping one another in need, both spiritually and materially. Sociological studies conducted in cities, both in old and new neighborhoods, show that more than half the families with grandparents are multigenerational bound in various degrees by common households or at least by common habitation. Certainly this is caused partially by housing problems, but strong family bonds also matter a lot in this context. Adult generations, especially the younger, prefer separate over common living space, but in the vicinity, preferably in the same building or block or no farther than within a ten or twenty minutes walk, so that it is possible to visit and help one another without great difficulties. This life form of adult generations may be called intimacy from a distance.

g. Traditions of Polish homes and family values are also one of many factors conditioning the lower divorce rater and the greater number of children in Polish families in comparison with neighboring countries, though these had the same legal and social conditions as Poland and were even better-off economically (e.g., Czechoslovakia, Hungary). Now an increase of divorce rates and a decrease in the number of children are observed in young families, though the reasons of this tendency remain unknown.

Family, family values, and home are precious values in the Polish culture. Commitment to home and to the relatives among whom one grows up, to memories and to family souvenirs, longing for the warmth of the family circle and nostalgia for the charming years of childhood, and the sense of belonging to a family are still strong in the younger generation, in spite of their greater sense of independence. Young people in Poland are tied to their families longer and more comprehensively than in Western countries. Even when they become independent, they remain closely related.