August 31, 2026

Immaculate Conception parish celebrates God’s gift of the harvest

REGIONAL
Staff report

 Bishop William D. Byrne poses for a picture after a special at Immaculate Conception Parish Sunday, Aug. 30, celebrating Dozynki, the gift of the summer harvest.(IObserve photo/Michael Pedro)

INDIAN ORCHARD – Bishop William D. Byrne celebrated a special 10 a.m. Mass at Immaculate Conception Parish Sunday, Aug. 30, to give thanks for the summer harvest. The Polish celebration called Dozynki, dates back to the 16^th century.

Youth and women dressed in traditional Polish costumes. A basket of bread was placed on the altar. Bread and salt are symbols of Polish hospitality. Children also presented wheat at the end of Mass. The harvest date traditionally fell near the feast of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in August.

“The origin of it here is coming back to Polish tradition,” said Father Piotr Calik, the pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish.

“The Polish tradition is to come give thanksgiving to God for everything we got from the farm starting with wheat,” he said.

The parish brought the celebration back four years ago.

“Events like that bring the community to work together. We have different organizations, from the Polish school over here doing the decorations, the choir working together, altar servers, youth group helping with me in the kitchen. We have a parish council involved. Events like that bring the spirit and the faith together in the parish,” he said.

Bishop Byrne said traditions like Dozynki build community in a parish.

“It’s just part of a tradition across the world of giving God thanks for the great blessings that we  have, especially recognizing the blessing of the harvest,” said Bishop Byrne.

“I think one of the important parts of being a pastor of a parish, putting something like this on takes a lot of work. So there’s a lot of time spent in the kitchen preparing all kinds of food. People aren’t just preparing food, they are laughing, telling stories building community amongst themselves then sharing that with everybody else. They all come together and break bread. How did Jesus give us the great gift of love in the Eucharist? Over a meal. And so this is just another example of coming together, putting God in the middle and also having some delicious food,” he said.

A video version of this story will be featured on an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel” which airs temporarily on Sundays at 6 a.m. on WWLP-22 NEWS.