Lauren+A's+European+Wiki+Project

=Poland Wikispace= toc

Poland is filled with many different mountains and waterways. The land area takes up almost all of the total land area of Poland. The total land area takes up about 36 times more space then the water area does. The Polish Government is a republic. There is an Executive Branch, a Judicial Branch, and a Legislative Branch. Polish people have many religious beliefs. They have some for farming, Christmas, and even death. Poland is a great place because of the geography, government, religious beliefs, and many other things.

Geography
Poland is in Central Europe, east of Germany.The natural resources are coal, sulfur, copper, natural gas, silver, lead, salt, and amber.The area total is 312,685 sq mi, the land area is 304,255 sq km, and the water area is 8,430 sq mi. The terrain is mostly a flat plain, but there are mountains along a southern border. The mountains include The Sudetic, the Tatra, and the Carpathian Mountains. The Tatra Mountains are the most elevated part of the Carpathian Mountains. It has a smooth coastline that is covered by sand dunes. It is also scattered with low-rising cliffs. In Poland’s lower lands, the land rises slightly above the tree-covered hills. The Bledow Desert, located in southern Poland, is only one of five natural deserts in Europe. There are 21 mountains in Poland, the elevation is over 2,000 miles. They are all located in the Tatras, along the border with Slovakia.

There are many waterways in Poland. The water area is 8,430 sq mi. Major rivers and seas in Poland include the Vistula River, the Baltic sea, the Oder river, the Bug River and the Warta River. The longest river is the Vistula River, which is about 651 miles long. The Vistulaa River is followed by the Oder which forms part of poland’s western border. It is 531 miles long. Poland is fronted by the Baltic Sea in the north. Poland has many small lakes. It has the second greatest density of lakes in Europe, behind Finland. The natural resources are coal, sulfur, copper, natural gas, silver, lead, salt, and amber.

Government
The government in based on a republic. The capital of Poland is Warsaw and Poland is divided into 16 provinces. The national holiday is Constitution Day on May 3, 1791. The latest adopted constitution is April 2, 1997. It was approved by referendum May 25, 1997. It was amended in 2006, 2009, and 2013. The youngest age to vote is 18 years old. The national symbol is the white eagle. The flag has two horizontal bands of white and red; there is also a white eagle on a red field. The colors of the Polish flag are based on the colors of the national coat of arms. The coat of arms, which is a white eagle, dates back to the 13th century. The red symbolizes the blood shed in the country's fight for independence and the white symbolizes peace.

In the Executive Branch, the president is Bronislaw Komorowski. He is a polish politician and a historian who has been president of Poland since 2010. The head government is Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Elzbieta Bienkowska. The Council of Ministers are responsible to the prime minister and the Sejm. The prime minister proposes new laws, the president appoints the laws, and the Sejm approves the Council of Ministers. A two house legislature consists of an upper house, the Senate, and a lower house, called the Sejm. The Judicial Branch consists of the Supreme Court, which has a president of the Supreme Court and 116 judges. The national symbol is the white eagle. The flag has two horizontal bands of white and red; there is also a white eagle on a red field on the flag.

Religion
The main religion that the people believe in is Catholicism. The Catholic Church has many services and practices. In areas that are more rural, there are religious practices based on the growing seasons. The religious practices are associated with farming to make sure that they will have good luck. When people are cleaning out their house in preparation for Christmas, a corner is left unswept. They do that because they don’t want all of the happiness to get thrown out.

In their religion, they visualize death as a tall woman dressed in a white sheet. She is carrying a tool used for cutting crops. Nothing can stop her, but animals could warn you of her approach. The dead would be buried in their Sunday best. A house where someone has died is marked with a cloth. It would be nailed to the back of a door. The cloth would be black if the dead person was an older married man or woman, green if it was a young man, and white if it was a young woman. A white cloth and a bouquet of flowers were considered symbols of mourning.The dead man or woman was placed in the coffin between two chairs that belonged in the main room of their house. Coins were either placed in one hand, in the mouth, or in their left armpit. They were placed there so that the deceased has been paid and has no reason to come back to life.