How to Keep Polish Christmas Traditions in your home?
Carrying on traditions from the “old country” is alive and well. Although we may not be able to create a given tradition as they did in the “old country”, just as their names were Americanized, so are the traditions. For the most part, in many countries, the traditions are centered around what you eat, who you are with and in which activity you are engaged. To keep Polish traditions alive during Christmas, try to remember about these 5 things (of course there is more to it, but these are simple…):
1. Eat no meat and drink no alcohol on Christmas Eve (known as Wigilia). This is the most important day of the holiday, as people await the arrival of Jesus.
2. Prepare your table with a white tablecloth and under the tablecloth have a few sprigs of hay. If you are very daring you can try pulling out a stem of hay. If the stem is green, there will be an early marriage; a short stem is an early death; a yellow one means no marriage and a withered one means a long wait. People usually leave one place at the table free, whether for someone who arrives unexpectedly or for a remembrance for those who have already passed. Be sure there are candles on the table.
3. When the first star appears in the sky, start a very splendid supper. This should be a preplanned 12 entree meal (The number twelve is in honor of Jesus’ twelve apostles.); what actually is eaten varies in the different regions of Poland, however, dishes should be vegetarian (fish and other water dwelling creatures were not considered meat). Usually this includes a clear barszcz (borsch) with uszka or a zupa grzybowa (mushroom soup); karp smażony (fried carp); sledź (different herring dishes); kapusta z grzybami – bigos without meat (cabbage with mushrooms); pierogi z kapustą i grzybami (pierogi with cabbage and mushrooms); groch z kapustą (cabbage with beans); kluski z makiem (pasta with poppy seeds) and ciasta (different cakes). The choice of drink is kompot(dried fruit). As much as this may not sound too appetizing, it has some kind of magic…Of course I remember hiding coke under the table as a child….
4. Start the meal with a prayer and some reading from the Bible. An opłatek (a wafter that symbolises bread) should be shared along with a Christmas greeting.
5. Blow out the candles at the end of the meal. If the smoke from the candles drifted towards the piec (stove, most likely meaning the source of heat), then there would be a marriage; If the smoke goes towards the window, the harvest would be good; but if the smoke goes towards the door, there would be a death in the family.
There are so many other Polish traditions…I will write more about them soon.
Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)
