A Cold and Warm Day in Krakow

           

Checking out the amber

    Why must it be amber for the Rabbit Prince? Szerykl had asked. Why not turquoise, she had wondered, or even rubies?
    Now, as she and Sheri rode the tram on an early December day in Krakow, she asked again.
    "How come?”

    “That’s a great question, Szerykl,” said Sheri. “Let’s try to figure that out while we go shopping.”

    As it happens, they were on their way to the Rynek, or the main square, where they planned to visit the Cloth Hall, the very old market building in the middle of the square.

    The Cloth Hall! They must have clothes there, thought Szerykl, who only has a thin summer dress, after all, and gets the shivers unless she’s riding in Sheri’s pocket.

    But once they were at the Cloth Hall, the first thing Szerykl saw in most of the market stalls was…

    “Dragons!” she cried.

    The little bunny is scared stiff of dragons these days. Big dragons that breathe fire. Small dragons that hide in caves. So even when she sees the smiling plush dragon toys at the Cloth Hall, she’s reminded that the Rabbit Prince has told her she must face a real dragon to get one of the four drops of amber.

    “Forget the dragons for a minute,” said Sheri. “Let’s look at all this pretty jewelry.”

     “It looks like it’s made out of honey,” said Szerykl, glancing over her shoulder for any dragons that might call her name.
     

Dragons waiting for Szerykl

            “That’s right,” said Sheri. “That’s called amber. Do you see any turquoise jewelry here?”
            “No."
            “Any rubies?”

              “No.” Szerykl shook her little bunny head slowly.

            “That’s because amber is a big deal in Poland,” said Sheri. “When we go to visit Gdansk, up on the Baltic Sea coast, for New Year’s Eve, we’ll learn more about amber.”

            “But what IS it? Is it really made of honey?”

            “No—even better than that,” said Sheri. “It’s made from the sap of trees that grew a very very very VERY long time ago in Scandinavia.”

            “WHAT???” cried Szerykl, jerking her ears so hard that her little head flew back. “Sap? That stuff that I see oozing out of trees sometimes?”

            “Yup. And sometimes bugs got stuck in the sap, and you can still see them inside the amber. They might be hundreds of thousands of years old, those bugs.”

            “Yuck!” Szerykl spit out the word and then clasped her snout with her little front paws.

            “Weird, right? But it’s true,” said Sheri. “Amber’s more valuable when it comes with a dead bug.”

            Szerykl wanted to think about that for a while. But just then there was a hullabaloo in the Rynek outside the Cloth Hall, so they went to investigate.

            Szerykl saw a parade of people carrying what looked like miniature bright shiny castles, all tinseled with red and green and blue and gold. The castles had towers and windows and gewgaws and flags and stars and bells and people and animals. It was a lot to look at!        

Szopki on display in the Rynek

    People in Krakow call these Christmas creations szopki (SHOP-key) – or nativity scenes, Sheri told her. Sometimes in English they’re called “Christmas Cribs.”
    But instead of putting Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus in a barn, the people who make them put the manger inside of tiny look-alikes of famous buildings in Krakow. And they might include famous people from Krakow too. (Or even the Wawel Dragon!)

Szerykl gets a ride

    The szopki reminded Szerykl of dollhouses, but these were the fanciest dollhouses she had ever seen. Here is what she learned from listening to the talk around her: people in Krakow might spend all year making a szopka. Old people make them, young kids make them. And then on one day in early December, they bring them all to the market square, gather around the statue of a famous poet, and see who made the best one.
    Szerykl was amazed. “Can I get a closer look?” she asked a man wearing a long white and red coat, with ribbons and a peacock feather in his red cap. He smiled and gave Szerykl a ride on his arm so she could see better.

      Then she hopped down and went to explore a bright colorful szopka. “Oh look!” she said, hopping among the towers and onto the tiny second-floor balcony. “Here’s the baby Jesus in a manger. And Mary and Joseph, too.”
    The baby Jesus looked cold, wrapped only in a thin blanket. Szerykl could relate! Her little short-sleeved dress was not much protection against the Krakow wind.

    The Three Wise Men were there too, with their camels and gifts for the baby. She heard them talking (remember, her Superpower is that she can understand any language, including what tiny ancient people are saying). 

    And she wondered: What could she, a little rabbit, possibly say to the baby Jesus?       

Look for the Baby Jesus on the balcony

    Nothing. She had nothing to say. Even for a rabbit who understands all the languages, language isn’t always the answer. So instead she hopped into the manger and snuggled against the baby Jesus, giving him the gift of warmth as he lay in the cold. And, as so often happens when a person gives a gift, she felt warm all over, too.
    When it was time to hop down, she knew that her gift was very special, because she heard a sigh and a smile from the crib. (Yes, rabbits can hear smiles with their extra-big ears).
    Way at the bottom of this szopka, underneath the shepherds and the Wise Men, she discovered a cave. Szerykl went to explore, and sure enough found herself face to face with a dragon. A green dragon showing his teeth and ready to pounce.
     But the dragon did not move. Not at all, even when she scootched a little closer. It was only a rubber dragon, not a fierce and scary fire-breathing dragon.
    So Szerykl sat down next to it.
    “Hello, do you have any amber?” she asked.
    The dragon just stared and sadly shook his little rubber head.

     And that day, the day of the Krakow Christmas Cribs, was the day that Szerykl got another gift: she was no longer afraid of dragons.

Szerykl talks to the dragon