The Lajkonik is a bearded man who is dresses in
a special pointed hat and traditional Mongolian clothes. He rides a white
wooden horse. Every summer the Lajkonik appears in the Main Market of the
Cracow’s Old Town. The tradition of the Lajkonik comes from the days when
Tartar hordes attacked Poland.
Every June there is a Lajkonik Parade which
commemorates the day when the inhabitants of Cracow repelled a Tartar assault.
The Lajkonik rides through the Old Town, to the clock tower and on his way he
raps people with his mace and takes ransoms from the shopkeepers.
