Polish Christmas & New Year Polish Christmas & New Year CustomsCustoms

Polish Christmas CustomsPolish Christmas CustomsPreparations

The preparation for Christmas begins 4 weeks before the actual celebration – the whole period is called Advent.

During Advent everything is directed to coming Christmas: • Buying gifts; • Attending morning masses during whole advent which are called

Roraty; • Sending Christmas Cards with good wishes; Nearly everywhere women clean windows in apartments and houses

just before Christmas. The insides of the houses are also cleaned thoroughly. It is believed that if a house is dirty on Christmas Eve, it will remain dirty all next year.

The preparations should end by before the Christmas Eve comes.

Polish Christmas CustomsPolish Christmas CustomsChristmas Eve – Wigilia

Christmas treeThe Christmas tree is either real or artificial which is decorated on Chrismas

Eve – usually by children. The Christmas tree is adorned with candles or lights, thin strips of

transparent paper (angel's hair), and home-made paper chains, glass balls.

The Christmas presents must be put under the Christmas tree. Children should not see who is putting the presents under the Christmas tree.

Polish Christmas Polish Christmas CustomsCustoms

Christmas Eve – Wigilia Christmas Table

The table for the Christmas supper must be prepared carefully. There is a custom that the table has to have one place reserved for the

unexpected guest. A piece of hay is put under the table cloth – it resembles the hay in the

manger of the Child Jesus. The white wafer (Oplatek) blessed by the priest is put on the table.

Polish Christmas CustomsPolish Christmas CustomsChristmas Eve – Wigilia

Christmas Supper

Traditionally one should not eat anything before the Christmas supper starts. The Christmas supper starts when the first star comes out. After the prayer

lead by the father the people share the „oplatek” with the others passing the Christmas greetings. The farmers share „oplatek” also with their livestock.

There is a custom of having 12 dishes for the supper. The supper should not include meat, but only simple Lenten dishes. Traditionally, Poles eat:• CARP – a large freshwater fish that lives in lakes, pools and slow-moving

rivers.

Christmas supper • Polish dumplings (pierogi) with mushrooms and cabbage ,

• red beetroot soup.

• In some regions they eat the mixture of wheat grain, honey and nuts – so called kutia.

• We drink the compote of dried fruit. The supper lasts very long. • After the supper people go to the church to take part in the Christmas Midnight Mass.

Polish Christmas CustomsPolish Christmas CustomsChristmas Day – first holiday

Christmas Day (25th December) starts with the breakfast which includes meat. No cleaning, nor cooking are allowed on that day; only previously cooked food is heated. This is a day of joy, for Jesus was born. On Christmas Day, people start to observe the weather very closely. It is believed that each day foretells the weather for a certain month of the following year.

In Poland, Christmas period lasts Twelve Days (Days of harmony and good will.) The evenings of this twelve-days period are known as swiete wieczory, or holy evenings.

Polish Christmas CustomsPolish Christmas CustomsSt. Stephen’s Day – second holiday

St. Stephen's Day (26 December) is known as the second holiday. This is a day for visiting and exchanging Christmas greetings. When night begins to fall, you can hear stamping and jingling, followed by Christmas carol singing outside. Carolers begin their wandering from home to home. It is a live performance usually played by twelve young boys. They sing pastoral songs and carols, and when let into a house, perform scenes from King Herod's life. At the end, the performers are offered refreshments and some money.

Polish New Year CustomsPolish New Year CustomsNew Year’s Eve

The celebration of the New Year’s Eve in Poland is up to the people. Some go to the big balls. Some attend private dancing parties. Some celebrate on the streets. Some prefer time with their families.

Warsaw- capital city of Poland in December

The Old Town in Warsaw in December

Hotel Bristol

Christmas decorations

Warsaw’s Mermaid

The Krakow Suburb in Warsaw

Polish Epiphany CustomsPolish Epiphany CustomsEpiphany – Feast of the Three

Kings – 6 JanuaryThe evening of the Feast of the Three Kings was called szczodry

wieczor, which means a bountiful or plentiful evening. On the Feast, the family takes blessed chalk, foil, and incense, marking the home with the initials of the Three Wise Men along with the year (K+M+B year). This is done to bless the home and provide protection for those within against illness and misfortune. Often the parish priest--or in rural villages, the parish organist--comes to bless the home at this special time. The Feast of the Three Kings ends the swiete wieczory -- the twelve holy nights that began on Christmas Day--and signals the beginning of zapusty, or carnival time.

Thank you for your atencion

Merry Christmas !!!

We wish you Merry Christmas and a happy New Year

Students from Primary School in Warsaw

Macieja Aleksego Dawidowskiego „Alka”