Two Festivals to Celebrate in Globeville

Holy Rosary Bazaar, Sunday, August 18th from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Church festivals are the BEST! And those in Globeville won't disappoint you. Holy Rosary will hold its parish bazaar on Sunday, August 18th from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in the church parking lot and the space in front of the rectory. It's a tradition that dates to 1919 when the working class Slovenians and Croatians were trying to raise money to build their own church (a half a block away from St Joseph's Polish Church).

The first festival lasted four days and included plays, concerts, and an auction of livestock. The 2024 bazaar will feature enchiladas, soft tacos, gorditas, chilidrinas, hamburgers,hot dogs and Italian sausage sandwiches. There will be some Potica and pizzelles for sale at the Homecoming booth, (where you can find out about our Homecoming event in October).

A clown will amuse the kiddos, while the Heritage Irish Step Dancers, Aztec Dancers, Atravesados de la Sierra, and the amazing Banda "La Patrona" will get you moving. There will be crafts, and religious articles for sale, and a silent auction of gift baskets, too. Top it off with Karoke! 

Check our website:https:holyrosarydenver.org

or our facebook page: https://facebook.com/HolyRosaryChurchDenver

Lots of food choices!

A small selection of Potica

Banda La Patrona

St. Joseph's Polish Roman Catholic Church

One half block away from Holy Rosary Church is St. Joseph's Polish Church, whose red spire is visible from I-70. Dedicated in 1902, the parish has always had a Polish-speaking pastor and is a center of Polish faith and culture. Immerse yourself in all things Polish at the festival on Saturday August 24th, from noon to 9:00 pm, and Sunday, August 25th from noon to 5:00 pm.

Enjoy robust Polish craft beers, kielbasa, potato pancakes, cabbage rolls, pierogi, sauerkraut, and pastries.  Powisle, singers and dancers from Poland, and Krakowiacy Polish Dancers will perform traditional dances, the Amber Band and DJ SKI will provide dance music. Check out the Polish crafts and gifts. This is one festival you don't want to miss!

facebook.com/polishfoodfestival/

Krakowiacy Polish Dancers

It's the real deal - Pierogi

Polish guys admiring Polish sausage

Get off I-70 at Washington Street, head west on 47th Avenue

Stories from Holy Rosary Homecoming

Any parish that's been around for more than a century has stories to tell and the folks who attended the Homecoming event at Holy Rosary on October told them in abundance.

We began with Mass, of course. Joann Birsa sang "Kraljica venca rožnega" in Slovenian and the congregation followed with the same hymn "O Queen of the Holy Rosary" in English. In his homily, Father Frank Garcia paid tribute to the faith and perseverance of the Slovenian and Croatian founders, the teachers and pastors and the current Spanish parishioners who sustain the parish. The Mass concluded with the singing of "Tantum Ergo" and "Holy God We Praise Thy Name." We then retired to the school cafeteria for coffee, Potica, sandwiches and sharing photos and memories.

Joann Birsa has documented Slovenian songs and hymns. 

Their Croatian heritage is important to the Kalcevic family,
who has been farming in Colorado since 1898. 

Jeff Kalcevic, Mac, Bronwyn and Bo
https://kalcevicfarmsinc.business.site

Jim Peketz' family were among those who established Holy Rosary,

 as well as the Western Slavonic Association.
The family sponsored two stained glass windows in the church.

Magali Martinez, Nicki Gonzales, PhD (Vice Provost for Diversity

and Inclusion, and Professor of History at Regis University)

and Martha Del Real share a laugh.

Frank Okoren and his 98-year-old father, Rudy. Rudy entertained his granddaughter Karina by reciting escapades from his childhood.

It wasn't all hymns and history. There were tales of church founders arrested for bootlegging. Rudy Okoren recalled the Mass being said in Latin, with a sermon in Slovenian and a sermon in English. He smiled when confessing to skipping the second homily to steal a smoke. There were memories of altar servers, choirs, the terror of receiving your report card and a Christmas pageant with the Baby Jesus going airborne. We had such a great time, we'll do it again Saturday, March 25th, 2023.

View those entertaining stories on our YouTube Channel

https://youtu.be/GAMeDnK2kZc

Holy Rosary Homecoming - October 8, 2022

There will be no floats, no royalty, no football game or parades. There WILL be Mass at 10:00 am on Saturday, followed by refreshments (coffee, donuts, Potica Mexican pastries) and memories in the school cafeteria.

You don't have to be a current parishioner (although you are always welcome) - you just have to love Holy Rosary. Were your grandparents married here? Did any of your family attend school or church at Holy Rosary? Sing in the choir? Act in a school play? Attend the church bazaar? What teachers do you remember? 

Join us! Bring your photos, scrapbooks, notebooks, recipes, posters, and stories. (You might even discover a distant relative). Look for updates and information on the Holy Rosary website and Facebook page

www.holyrosarydenver.com

http://www.facebook.com/HolyRosaryChurchDenver

Students returning to school after Mass

Cinderella school play

Remembering Lent

The short, dark days in February and March were the perfect setting for Lent. There were the weekly rituals of stations of the cross, recitation of the rosary, benediction and confession. Before Vatican II, everything was in Latin and people of a certain age know all the words to Pange Lingua Gloriosi (Praise We Christ's Immortal Body) and Stabat Mater (for the stations of the cross). 
Adults were required to observe a complicated set of rules for fasting (not eating between meals) and abstinence from meat, while youngsters under the age of fourteen were granted a little more leeway. (I looked forward to Friday dinners with Mac 'n Cheese, potato pancakes and Mrs. Paul's Fishsticks). Everyone was urged to “give up” something like soda, candy, gum or TV.
By Holy Week, the days were getting longer and brighter, and the preparation more intense. More church visits, more rosaries, longer choir practice, baking Potica, apple strudel and painstakingly coloring pysanky eggs (every eastern European celebration seems to be time consuming).
Lent is about transformation - darkness to light, from distraction to contemplation, from busyness to solitude. Christ is risen, indeed He is risen from the dead. 
Customs that used to annoy me, now comfort and reassure me. I enjoy the symbolism of ashes, incense, the washing of feet, lighting the new fire and blessing of oils. Ash Wednesday is next week and I'm rehearsing Latin hymns.

  

Stations of the Cross at Holy Rosary Church

Potica or Povitica

Pysanky eggs - ours never looked this good

 

Queen of the Holy Rosary - Kraljica sv. Roznega Venca

The dedication program is written in Slovenian. The community of Southern Slavs wished to both celebrate their religion and preserve their culture in their new country. (And working twelve hours a day, six and seven days a week didn't allow much time for learning English).

Slovenes and Croats had been arriving in Globeville since the late 1880s and found low-paying, industrial jobs in one of the area's three smelters, its foundries, brickyards, railroads and meatpacking plants. At the urging of Bishop Nicholas Matz, Catholics attended St. Joseph's Polish Catholic Church in the neighborhood, but Slovenes and Croats didn't contribute financially, since they were saving to build a parish of their own. In 1918, new bishop Henry Tihen gave his approval for a Slovenian church and the fund raising continued in earnest. Money was raised in the lodges; St. Jacob's Croation Lodge, KSKJ, the Western Slavonic (WSA) and the American Fraternal Union. And there were concerts, plays, and a week-long festival to raise funds.

Ground for the new parish was broken in May 1919 and construction moved swiftly. The parish was dedicated on July 4th, 1920 to the Queen of Holy Rosary - Kraljica sv. Roznega Venca.

Today, a new group of immigrants shares this devotion to the Queen of Holy Rosary. A bi-lingual Mass will be held on the feast day of the parish, Saturday, October 7th at 7:00 pm with refreshments and fellowship in the parish hall. Holy Rosary Parish is located at 4688 Pearl Street in Globeville.

 

A Slovene Glee Club gave concerts to raise money

Photo ® Betty Zalar Praprocki

 

Father Cyril Zupan celebrates May crowning at Holy Rosary

photo ® Mary Lou Egan

 

Potica!

Globeville Feasts, Festivals and Food Summer 2015

Where can you experience the faith traditions of Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Croatia and Mexico and enjoy pierogi, pelmini, potica, tamales and beer? At one of several religious feasts, festivals and parish events in Globeville this summer.
The first event, the feast of Corpus Christi (the body of Christ) occurs at St Joseph Polish Church at 46th and Pearl on Sunday, June 7, after 10:30 am Mass. Four altars are decorated throughout Globeville and parishioners form a procession under a canopy, praying, singing, and scattering rose petals at each site. The first Altar will be decorated by the English-speaking congregation, and the rest by the Polish-speaking members of the parish. This tradition is observed in Europe and also in Mexico. St. Joseph's Polish Catholic Church

One of the Polish altars

The largest festival is the two-day Orthodox Food Festival and Old Globeville Days, July 18yh and 19th. There will be lamb roasting on a spit, every kind of ethnic food a person could want, craft beer (and that Eastern European specialty a shot of Slivovitz - Slovenian plum brandy - and a beer) Irish dancers, Ukranian choirs, Serbian musicians, Aztec dancers, bands, and accordions provide entertainment, as well as activities for the children, crafts, books, toys and representatives from neighborhood associations. There will be demonstrations of icon painting as well as tours of historic Orthodox Cathedral

Holy Transfiguration of Christ Cathedral

Tour the beautiful Orthodox temple

The Annual Polish Food Festival will be on Saturday, August 22nd and Sunday, August 23rd in the parking lot behind the school. Galumpkis, pierogi, sauerkraut, kielbasa, sausage and Polish beer. Polish bands and Krakowiacy dancers entertain you.

Holy Rosary Parish bazaar, Sunday, September 5th. Plans are underway for a festival that features Slovenian, Croatian and Mexican food, music and entertainment.
Holy Rosary Parish

Woman's Glory, The Kitchen

The title was "Woman's Glory, The Kitchen," (which says volumes about women's aspirations in a certain era) but there was also "Kuche Kochen," and "Treasured Polish Recipes for Americans," titles of cookbooks published mid 20th century to instruct "modern homemakers" how to prepare the ethnic dishes their mothers had made. And there were compilations of recipes published by church groups, ladies societies and fraternal organizations in an effort to preserve an ethnic culture that was vanishing as immigrants assimilated. 

But these old books offer much more than kitchen tips and recipes. Inside Woman's Glory, one would find several recipes for potica, a description of the region in which that version originated, information about the person submitting the recipe and lodge events. The German-Russian cookbook, Kuche Kochen, has an entire chapter devoted to blini, along with instructions for preserving food for the winter, customs in the author's village in Russia and prayers said before and after meals.  Published in the 1940s, "Treasured Polish Recipes for Americans"  contained insights into Polish culture as well as instructions for cooking Polish favorites. There are many vintage ethnic cookbooks, but the best ones offer a glimpse into the immigrant culture and way of life even as it was disappearing.  

Published by the Slovenian Women's Union of America

Slovenian Women's Union of America

Available from the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia

Available from the Polish Art Center

Potica - Povitica

Derived from the Slovenian word "poviti" meaning "to wrap in," potica (Serbs refer to it as Povitica) is a sweet yeast bread with a walnut, apple, poppy seed or cream cheese filling. 
Making this treat should be mandatory during the holidays: several generations of family are gathered at Christmas or Easter, the process takes most of the day and there are tasks suitable for both young and old family members. Small hands can grind walnuts while grandma explains how the recipe arrived from the "old country" with her mother "who left when she was 16-years-old, and was never able to see her parents again."  A tattered recipe card contains ingredients and the steps, but the commentary provides the variations: "Your aunt Helen always adds raisins, and aunt Agnes uses honey instead of sugar. Folks worried when your Uncle Andy married a German girl but she learned to make the best potica, and it worked out all right." 
More important than a written recipe is the action of kneading, of observing the dough rise (twice!), spreading the filling just so in order for the pastry to cook and pricking the bread so air bubbles can escape. The kitchen is filled with the aroma of baking bread and the warmth of family stories.

Christmas Memories

Larry Summers is the grandson of Carl Gerhardt, proprietor of Gerhardt Mercantile, and remembers Christmas as a youngster during the Depression. “Mrs. Metzger was a Sunday School teacher who organized the children's program on Christmas Eve at St. Paul’s German Lutheran Church. Everyone had a few lines to say and some was in German. Afterward, we each got a little bag with an orange and a pyramid-looking chocolate with cream inside. I think Grandpa Gerhardt and Mr. Schaffer probably supplied most of the stuff inside the bag."

Globeville's Poles would celebrate with a special dinner on Christmas Eve known as wigilia with mushroom soup, boiled potatoes (kartofle), pickled herring (sledzie), fried fish, pierogi, beans and sauerkraut (groch i kapusta). A lighted candle in the windows symbolized the hope that the Christ child, in the form of a stranger, would come and an extra place was set at the table for the unexpected guest.

Southern Slavs enjoyed homemade wine and delicacies not eaten at other times of the year, such as smoked meats or potica (pronounced po-tee-sa), a Slovenian nut bread.

Using the old Julian calendar, Globeville's Orthodox Slavs observed Christmas on January 7th. Elaborate church services, feasting and visits with family remained the same when the switch was made to the Gregorian calendar in 1968.

Bea Trevino's Hispanic Christmas traditions are those her family observed growing up in New Mexico. "For Christmas and Easter we make meat empanadas. For New Years a lot of us make a chicken mole, or we make menudo with hominy. In New Mexico, we do hominy with ham or pork."

Commemorative Christmas plate, a gift of the Gerhardt Mercantile. Photo Larry Summers.