The old bear

The name of the game derives from the words of the song accompanying the procession and the figure of the bear, played by a selected child. In the old folk culture in Poland and in Europe (also in selected non-European cultures), the bear was a symbol of unlimited strength, power, and aggression, thus it aroused fear and admiration. The bear’s name was not spoken so as not to irritate the bear, but it was also often tried to become like the bear in order to take on its powers and control it. That is why in carnival games all over Poland, the bear is always led on a tether, humiliated and threatening at the same time. It was believed that a bad man could transform himself into a bear and thus become a menace to the bunch. People tried to put the fear of the bear out of their minds by imitating its clumsy movements or mocking it verbally. The term “old bear” is one such magical attempt to “weaken” the power of the animal, although the words of the song express respect and fear even of a sleeping bear. At the beginning of the game, the children choose one of them to play the role of the bear. This is usually done by drawing lots or by a rhyming rhyme. The chosen child lies down on the ground or crouches and pretends to be a sleeping bear. In mountainous regions, the child chosen to play the bear puts on a fur hat on his head or a serdak with his hair up to resemble the character as much as possible. The other children join hands and form a closed circle (procession). Moving slowly with a walking step around the bear, they sing:

The old bear is sleeping hard, the old bear is sleeping hard,
We’re afraid of him, we’re walking on tiptoe,
When it wakes up it will eat us, When it wakes up it will eat us.

The first hour the bear is sleeping,
the second hour the bear snores.
The third hour the bear catches!

At the last words of the song, the bear suddenly wakes up and “darts” toward the children. The circle rotates quickly, in some variations of the game the children separate and run away in different directions from the bear. The child who is caught by the bear takes over his role and “falls asleep” in the middle of the circle. The game starts from the beginning and can continue until all children have played the role of the bear. Sometimes the rhyme in the last verses may last until twelve o’clock, and during this time the children walk around the bear quietly, more and more quietly (usually from eight o’clock), walking on tiptoes so as not to wake him up. The bear sometimes turns around, pretends to wake up, and when it runs after children, it sometimes pretends to slow down and get sleepy, thus weakening the children’s alertness and finally grabbing one of them. In the eastern regions of the country, the bear was sometimes replaced by a gypsy (or gypsy), which was also feared and respected.

The folk melody of the song from this game is used to compose the chochol’s song “Miałeś chamie złoty róg” from Stanisław Wyspiański’s drama “Wesele”.