This is an interesting description (mostly based on Maciej of Miechow but with an addition as to current practices) by a priest (rector of the Holy Trinity Church in Vilnius), Marcin Tworzydło, from his “A Closer Look on the Reflection on Christian Services in Poland” or Okulary na zwierciadło nabożeństwa chrześciańskiego w Polszcze. (He actually used the word “glasses” or “looking glass” but a “closer look” translates better).
This was published in 1594 and was itself a response to a pamphlet written by a Protestant from the Czech Unity of the Brethren (a Hussite movement that turned Protestant) Simon Theophilus Turnowski:
“…For you are so blind that you cannot tell apart painting and an idol. But have you seen that the ancient Poles should ever have burned down any depiction of Christ the Lord or the Virgin Mary or any other saints? Where have you read of that? Which chronicle tells of this? I do know that they had burned down their Gods and idols: Jessa, Lada, Pochwisciel [Pochwist], Lel Polel and other devils whom, having been pagans, they earlier worshipped as Gods. It was these that Miesco ordered to be burned, drowned and destroyed ordering at the pain of death to only worship the one God in the Holy Trinity. And as a remembrance of this, there was this custom in Poland that each year at the Laetare Sunday, children, having put together such an idol, would then drown it in the river singing Lada, Leli, Leli and then quickly rush home – a custom that they sometimes still preserve. But that they should ever burn a Christian image, that has not been seen…”
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