1. Polish
Christmas Traditions
Anna Dziedziak

2. Christmas in Poland is the most elaborate
holiday during the whole year, and Polish people
prepare for it days before the actual celebration.

3. • Polish Christmas Beliefs and Traditions
There 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.

4. • 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.

5. • 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

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

7. • 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.

8. • 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.