It’s for the second time that the magazine ’Purpose – Enterprise in Culture’ has received funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Between August and December four new English issues of the magazine will be published.

The August issue is entirely devoted to tradition. According to Wikipedia tradition is “a practice, custom or story that is presumed deeply important, memorised and passed down from generation to generation”. In the final scene of “Mi” by StanisŁaw Bareja the coalman very cleverly summarises one of the film’s messages: (…) nothing can be called tradition. You cannot ordain it or enact it. Who believes otherwise, glows as a burned-out candle in the sunshine! Tradition is an oak which has been growing for a thousand years. Don’t compare a little sprout with an oak! Tradition is a fortified wall of our history. It is a Christmas carol, a holly supper, it is the people’s singing, our mother tongue, it is our history which cannot be changed. And what surrounds us now is our daily life.       

Do we pay any attention to tradition nowadays? Is it important for us? Do we know our tradition? We are trying to answer these questions in the articles and interviews of this issue. Please, read the article by Janusz Ziêba and Tomasz Majorek of the Academy of Dying Trades attached to the Silesian Castle of Art and Enterprise in Cieszyn and the interview with Zygmunt Kuchta, the creator of the Tatra Highlands School of Dying Trades, Folklore and Folk Art.

We also recommend our permanent sections: “Analysis” by Artur Zagu³a and “Feature Article” by Kuba Wandachowicz.

This undertaking was prepared and is realized under the Promotion of Reading Operation Programme announced by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.