{"id":566,"date":"2009-06-18T01:48:40","date_gmt":"2009-06-18T05:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=566"},"modified":"2009-06-18T01:48:40","modified_gmt":"2009-06-18T05:48:40","slug":"namedays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/namedays\/","title":{"rendered":"Namedays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2009\/06\/imieniny.jpg\" aria-label=\"Imieniny\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-567\"  alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2009\/06\/imieniny.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2009\/06\/imieniny.jpg 400w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2009\/06\/imieniny-350x245.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><strong>Imieniny<\/strong>. I\u2019m sure that anyone who has spent more than five minutes (ok, five days) in Poland is familiar, even if only vaguely, with this glorious occasion. The custom of celebrating namedays (<strong>imieniny<\/strong>) is not unique to Poland (some other countries do it, too), but I think only in Poland <strong>imieniny<\/strong> are taken so seriously.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>But first things first. Yes, <strong>imieniny<\/strong> \u201care\u201d. It\u2019s a plural noun. Only. <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span><strong>imieniny<\/strong> <em>(noun, plural, non-personal)<\/em> \u2013 nameday<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>So in Polish, whether you are talking about one particular nameday, or several, it\u2019s always the same \u2013 <strong>imieniny<\/strong>. Same with \u201c<strong>urodziny<\/strong>\u201d (birthday) \u2013 another one of those plural only nouns. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>But why am I talking about namedays all of a sudden? I was caught totally off guard by one this week. You see, my family doesn\u2019t celebrate namedays. Never have. I don\u2019t even know when my nameday is. And as far as I can remember, no one ever, not even my very traditional grandmas <strong>obchodzi\u0142y imieniny<\/strong> (celebrated namedays). We only did birthdays (<strong>urodziny<\/strong>) and that was it. And once you reach a certain age, you don\u2019t even want to do that, especially if you\u2019re a woman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>But what was I talking about? Ah yes, caught off guard by imieniny.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>My friend called me up bright and early on Monday and the conversation went more or less like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul> <em><span>F: What time can we expect you?<\/span><br \/>\n<span>A: Huh?<\/span><br \/>\n<span>F: I said, \u201cWhat time are you coming over?\u201d And you eat dairy products, right?<\/span><br \/>\n<span>A: Huh?<\/span><br \/>\n<span>F: OK, in that case, come at 6PM, and you\u2019ll get some dinner too.<\/span><br \/>\n<span>A: Errrr\u2026 you know what? I am somewhere between Toru\u0144 and <strong>\u0141\u00f3d\u017a <\/strong>now stuck in traffic and I don\u2019t\u2026<\/span><br \/>\n<span>F: You FORGOT!!!<\/span><br \/>\n<span>A: Oh no\u2026 I didn\u2019t\u2026<\/span><br \/>\n<span>F: You forgot about my <strong>imieniny<\/strong> AGAIN!<\/span><\/em><\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>Of course, she was right. I did forget. Most of my friends gave up a long time ago and don\u2019t even bother to notify me about their nameday parties. This particular friend hopes that eventually I will learn, or buy a better wall calendar (the most popular names are listed under the appropriate days).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>But this nameday tradition is not nearly as uniform as some would like to think. I read somewhere that younger people can\u2019t be bothered with namedays and of course I wanted to see if this was indeed true. So today, while walking across the Technical University campus (<strong>Politechnika<\/strong>) I thought it would be fun to find out what college age kids think of namedays. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>The result was an astounding \u201chuh?\u201d Out of the 18 people asked, 15 said \u201c<strong>Imieniny<\/strong>? That\u2019s for old folks.\u201d Seven had no idea when their namedays were. And two turned out to be exchange students from Azerbaijan who thought I was after them because they overstayed their visas \u2013 they somehow managed to misunderstand me that badly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>So, what\u2019s the deal with <strong>imieniny<\/strong>? Is it really only for old folks who are too afraid to admit how old they are (and hence gave up on celebrating birthdays a long time ago)? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>The whole idea of <strong>imieniny<\/strong> started a long time ago in the Middle Ages. Of course back then, it was not called that. Rather, it was a celebratory feast for a particular saint on a particular day. The church promoted those feasts and actually preferred them over birthdays, because birthday celebrations were seen as pagan. But then, somewhere along the way, the feasts disappeared and what we have now are <strong>imieniny<\/strong> parties instead of religious occasions. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>In Poland <strong>imieniny<\/strong> are big business (the young ones at <strong>Politechnika<\/strong> and their answers notwithstanding) and are celebrated just like birthdays \u2013 sans the candles, of course. There are big dinners, cakes, flowers and gifts (and don&#8217;t forget about greeting cards!). <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>So maybe by not celebrating my own nameday I am missing out? But then again, as a <strong>solenizant<\/strong> (the one whose nameday is celebrated) it would be me preparing that dinner and baking those cakes\u2026 Hmmm\u2026 Maybe I\u2019ll pass.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>Here\u2019s something to remember:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span><strong>imieniny<\/strong> \u2013 nameday <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Wingdings\"><span>&#8211;&gt;<\/span><\/span><span> <strong>solenizant<\/strong> \u2013 person whose nameday is celebrated<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><strong>urodziny<\/strong> \u2013 birthday <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Wingdings\"><span>&#8211;&gt; <\/span><\/span><span><strong>jubilat<\/strong> \u2013 person whose anniversary (including a birthday) is celebrated <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>And a general<span> <\/span>nameday greeting:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji imienin!<\/strong> \u2013 Best wishes on your nameday!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"245\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2009\/06\/imieniny-350x245.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2009\/06\/imieniny-350x245.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2009\/06\/imieniny.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Imieniny. I\u2019m sure that anyone who has spent more than five minutes (ok, five days) in Poland is familiar, even if only vaguely, with this glorious occasion. The custom of celebrating namedays (imieniny) is not unique to Poland (some other countries do it, too), but I think only in Poland imieniny are taken so seriously&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/namedays\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[7354,306823,7441,7481,7520],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-vocabulary","tag-celebrations","tag-culture","tag-imieniny","tag-namedays","tag-plural-nouns"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}