1st Advent
On the first Advent the children make lanterns and take them with to Church. Advent is a time of fasting in Poland and the people abstain from eating meat (except fish).
6th December St Nicholas Day
Mikolaj (St Nicholas) brings gifts for the children leaving them under the pillow or in their clean and shiny boots. Traditions are becoming blurred as Mikolaj sometimes wears traditional bishop’s clothing or a red Santa Claus outfit, and may make an appearance at Christmas with gifts again.
Breaking the wafers (copyright Shutterstock)
24th of December
The Christmas tree is decorated in the morning and the Pierniczki biscuits cut in Christmas shapes are hung onto the branches. These cookies are baked up to 4 weeks in advance because at first they are too hard to eat.
Everyone fasts for the whole day whilst the food is being prepared.
When all the guests have arrived in the evening they mingle and each presents each person in the room a wafer that has been blessed and provided by the Church. In pairs they will each hold a wafer and break it in two. One person then makes a wish for the other person for the coming year. This is done until everyone in the room has made a wish for each other.
The table is always set with an extra place for an unexpected visitor. Then dinner is served starting with the warm dishes, because everyone is ravenous from a day of fasting. Twelve dishes are always prepared representing the 12 apostles. Traditional foods include Carp sautéed in butter, homemade rollmops, dumplings stuffed with sour cabbage or forest mushrooms (Pierogi) all rounded off with poppy seed cake. No red meat is allowed on Christmas Eve.
Mikolaj then comes down the chimney and brings gifts for all. Some places still follow the old tradition where Gwiazdor brings the gifts instead of Mikolaj. Gwiazdor is dressed in sheepskin and covered in soot. He carries a bag of gifts for good children and a rod for spanking bad children.
Everyone then goes to Church for midnight mass when carols are sung for the first time in the festive season.
25th and 26th of December
These days are for meeting the extended family and red meat is allowed on these occasions. Schab ze Sliwkac (Pork stuffed with prunes) and Duck with apples and oranges may grace the table.
6th January
The coming of the 3 Kings is celebrated with a Holy Mass in the church during which chalk, a gold ring, amber and incense symbolizing the gifts brought by the three wise men, are blessed. Once back home they use the chalk to inscribe “K+M+B+” the date on the doors of homes to provide protection against illness and misfortune. The letters stand for the names of the Three Kings in Polish – Kacper, Melchior and Baltazar – or for a Latin inscription meaning “Christ bless this house”.
2nd of February: Feast of our Lady of Thunder Candles
The Poles will dispose of their Christmas trees on this day, if they have lasted that long, bringing to an end the Festive season. They will take their candles to Church to be blessed and that is why this festival is called Feast of our Lady of Thunder Candles. The candles will be lit at home throughout the year during thunderstorms and placed in the window to ward off storms, fire and all bad things threatening life and the household.
Beetroot Consomme with Dumplings
With thanks to Izabela Zach for the information and for cooking with me.