PolishChristmas Traditions

Anna Dziedziak

Christmas in Poland is the most elaborate

holiday during the whole year, and Polish people

prepare for it days before the actual celebration.

• Polish Christmas Beliefs and TraditionsThere are several beliefs surrounding Christmas time among Poles that might seem very different for people from other nations. The most important part for Poles is to have their house or apartment sparkling clean. It is believed that if the house is clean inside and outside on Christmas, it will remain clean throughout the whole next year. Weather is believed to have impact on the whole next year. Everything that happens on Christmas, including the weather, has an impact on the following year. The weather on Easter and throughout the next year supposedly depends upon the weather on Christmas (snow, rain, etc). Only a white Christmas is considered a real Christmas; therefore, everybody is happy when there is fresh snow outside. Before Christmas Eve supper (known as Wigilia) Polish farmers bless their fields with holy water and place crosses made from straw into the four corners of a room. This is suppose to protect the household from evil powers and bad luck. Right before Christmas Eve, unmarried women should go outside the house and listen to a dog barking. The direction from where the dog barked indicates where the prospective husband will come from. Unmarried women usually predict their future from a straw. To do it, hay is put under a white tablecloth in memory of Jesus in the manger. Before sitting down at the table after all traditional foods are ready and brought to the table, everyone anxiously awaits the moment when the first star, known as the Gwiazdka, appears in the eastern sky. For that is when the feast to commemorate the birth of the Christ Child begins.

• Now everybody breaks the traditional wafer, or Oplatek and exchanges good wishes for health, wealth and happiness in the New Year. This is such a deeply moving moment that often tears of love and joy are evoked from the family members who are breaking this symbolic bread. The Oplatek is a thin, unleavened wafer similar to the altar bread in the Roman Catholic Church. It is stamped with the figures of the Godchild, the blessed Mary, and the holy angels. The wafer is known as the bread of love and is often sent by mail to the absent members of the family.

• After supper, they pull out blades of straw from beneath the tablecloth. A green one foretells marriage; a withered one signifies waiting; a yellow one predicts spinsterhood; and a very short one foreshadows an early grave. Some people also put money under the white cloth, which symbolizes prosperity in the household

• At midnight on Christmas Eve animals are believed to speak with a human voice.

• Many people believe that additional plate on the table is a way to reunite with those who we cannot be with during Christmas supper. It can be for deceased relatives or friends who supposedly come during Christmas Eve to eat the food with us. On the other hand this symbolic additional seat represents Polish hospitality. No one should be left alone at Christmas, so strangers and also the homeless are welcomed to join in the holy supper. This belief derives from the times when Mary and Joseph were looking for shelter.

• The greatest symbol of Christmas is the Christmas tree. In Poland usually decorated before Christmas Eve is a cheerful event for families. The custom of having a Christmas tree was first introduced in Alsace (today a region of eastern France) at the end of the 15th century. Three centuries later, it was common around the world. Early on, the tree was decorated with apples to commemorate the forbidden fruit - the apple of paradise (the garden of Eden). Today, the Christmas tree is adorned with apples, oranges, candies and small chocolates wrapped in colorful paper, nuts wrapped in aluminum foil, hand-blown glass ornaments, candles or lights, thin strips of clear paper (angel's hair), and home-made paper chains. The latter, however, has become rarer because commercially produced aluminum foil chains are being sold.