Beautiful Poppies Luncheon Napkins.  Three ply napkins with water based paints used in the printing process.

Quote from this company:
"We employ and support disabled people, buying from us you help them live."
"Zatrudniamy i pomagamy osobom niepelnosprawnym, kupujac u nas pomagasz im zyc."

By Robert Strybel, "The Polish Answer Man"

Poppies first made their way to Poland in the Middle Ages from Hungary and Bohemia, To this day they play an important role in various sweet dishes and cakes, especially those associated with Christmas. Although educated people were aware of the opium connection in other countries, the variety available in Poland was regarded mainly as a culinary ingredient. Regarding poppyseeds mainly as a pastry filling or something to sprinkle on bread and rolls, French travelers to Poland centuries ago were surprised to see Poles eating  a poppyseed  filling or pudding (containing nuts, raisins and honey) by the spoonful. In the Polish public mind, poppies were associated not so much with their sedative qualities, but rather had a certain ritual significance symbolizing abundance and fertility. They were and continue to be an absolute must on the Poles’ single most important family occasion of the year – Wigilia or Christmas Eve supper. There they may appear in such dishes as:

• Eggs noodles and poppyseeds (kluski/łaskami z makiem)
• Pastry sticks used to dip into poppyseed filling (łamańce z makiem)
• Silesian poppyseed dessert (makówki śląskie)
• Wheat, honey and poppyseed pudding (kutia)
• Pierogi with poppyseed filling (pierogi z makiem)
• Makowiec/strucla z makiem (poppyseed roll cake)
• Poppyseed torte (tort majowy)
• Poppyseed teacakes (ciasteczka z makiem)
• Poppyseed milk (mleczko makowe) – used as a topping  on desserts such as oat pudding (kisiel owsiany)
• Aside from Christmas, in the western city of Poznań, a special crescent roll containing a white-poppy filling is traditionally served on Martinmas (St Martin’s Day – 11th November).
• As in other culture, poppyseeds are also used to sprinkle on breads and rolls before baking.
• Long before anyone had heard of Omega-6, poppyseed oil was prized for its taste properties and nutrition as a flavoring for different foods such as groats.
• Poppies were once a nutritious fodder crop containing 32% vegetable protein.
• In the 1970s, Polish hippies and squat dwellers learned that a crude type of heroin could be made by boiling poppyseed stems. The resultant brown liquid known in the slang of the day as “kompot” (compote) and injected intravenously with a syringe.

In the political/cultural realm, "Czerowne maki na Monte Cassino" is the name of a popular World War II vintage song about the capture of the Nazi  stronghold in Monte Cassino monastery in Italy. The Polish Second Corps of Gen. Władysław Anders routed the Germans after English and Australian troops had failed, thereby opening the Allies' march on Rome. But the casualty rate was very high. The song states that "The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino are all the redder because they fed on Polish blood..."

In Stalinist Poland (1945-1956) the song was banned because it lauded the Free Polish Forces in the West.