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Kochany Panie Mikołaju! Posted by on Dec 6, 2013 in Uncategorized

You probably know that Christmas and St.Nicolas Days are not celebrated on the same time in Poland but three weeks apart. St. Claus (called rather St. Nicolas) Day (Dzień św Mikołaja) is celebrated on the December 6th, name-day of St. Nicolas. This is a day when St. Nicolas, in Polish: Św. Mikołaj, is visiting all kids – some children in person during the evening, some secretly during night (putting gifts under their pillows, while they are sleeping). In some regions of Poland only St. Claus was bringing gifts on the 6th of December. Gifts were not given under Christmas tree during Christmas! Most of the kids open their gifts on Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas Day.

There is one gift that almost all children in Poland receive from Santa. Something not known in American tradition to well… It is a birch for beating (Polish, “rózga”). It symbolizes gift for children, who were naughty…but it is really iven more for fun and as a joke now. Usually it is attached to the bag with candies and it serves as a warning for all kids that if they would not improve their behavior the only gift they will receive next year… will be just a bigger birch and nothing else. But, nobody takes it seriously, although mischievous kids as a rule receive usually bigger birches than the good ones.

Here is a very nice song sang by Majka Jeżowska – one of my favorite Christmas songs for kids:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEEMuey3WW8

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)

 

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About the Author: Kasia

My name is Kasia Scontsas. I grew near Lublin, Poland and moved to Warsaw to study International Business. I have passion for languages: any languages! Currently I live in New Hampshire. I enjoy skiing, kayaking, biking and paddle boarding. My husband speaks a little Polish, but our daughters are fluent in it! I wanted to make sure that they can communicate with their Polish relatives in our native language. Teaching them Polish since they were born was the best thing I could have given them! I have been writing about learning Polish language and culture for Transparent Language’s Polish Blog since 2010.

Comments:

  1. jola:

    This is the first time I hear that Św. Mikołaj puts gifts under pillows. I live in western Poland and here Św. Mikołaj always leaves presents in shoes. I never knew that in other parts of Poland there’s different tradition.

    • Kasia:

      @jola Yes, it is true. When I was a little girl , Santa always put gifts under the pillow!I grew up near Lublin:)I heard about tradition of putting them in the shoes though…

  2. Casimir Ziezio:

    naughty, not notty.

  3. Nicole:

    Ah, was going to ask about the “presents in shoes” thing. I grew up in a Polish part of Chicago and only knew of the presents being put in shoes. The father in the family joked that he would put his tall fishing boots out so they would get lots of candy/presents. Not sure what part of Poland my friend’s family came from.