Christmas in Poland: What It's Like Celebrating the Holidays in Poland

Poland is a land of many celebrations that hold different customs with every celebration. Many of the customs that they practice revert back a thousand years. Through the many years, the Polish holidays have been mixed with the Roman Catholic holidays. Roman Catholic holidays are not necessarily Polish because the Poles are Catholic. The Poles have begun to modernize some of the ways of celebrating their holidays. Christmas is one of the most important holidays in Poland because their celebrations last 2 to 3 months.

Christmas in Poland begins November 12 and goes until January 6. There are some places in Poland where they celebrate Christmas until February 2 in some areas. For Advent, the Poles celebrate many special saints' days. On November 12, St. Martin's Day, is the day when Poles feast on roast goose. The Poles will have parties and dancing on November 25, St. Catherine's Day, and November 30, St. Andrew's Day. One the Eve of St. Andrew's, the Poles hold a fortune-telling event. When it hits midnight, people pour hot wax into a pot of cool water, and as the wax starts to cool, shadows began to get cast on the wall. These shadows they believe tell people what to expect in the upcoming year. Their dreams that night are supposed to predict the future as well.

On December 6, St. Nicholas Day, St. Nicholas will usually be dressed as a bishop. He comes in his sleigh with gifts for the children. The good children will get religious pictures, honey cakes, and other presents. The naughty children will get coal. There are usually very few bad children in Poland on St. Nicholas Day. Today, St. Nicholas will be dressed more like the American Santa Clause, and does not always come in a sleigh. The Polish children will get Advent calendars as well. Every day the boys and girls will open a door to the calendar. Behind the doors are pieces of candy or a picture.

There are a lot of story-telling, baking and caroling that the Poles do. They have Puppet theaters telling stories that are common in Poland. Pierniki is a type of honey cake that is baked in early December. Pierniki only gets better with age, so they do not eat it until Christmas Eve, December 25. Pierniki can come in a variety to shapes and sizes including: animals, saints, and nativities scenes. As Christmas dawns closer, Poles go house to house singing Christmas carols.

The Poles have a tradition where they break the oplatek. The oplatek is a think wafer with a Christmas scene on top of it. The Poles will break off a piece of the oplatek and share it with family and friends. They also send a piece to friends who live far away from them.

For Christmas Eve dinner, they have what is called wigilia. There must be an odd number of foods in the wigilia. It is bad luck not to taste every single item on the table. After the wigilia, people will sing Christmas songs and open gifts from Santa or the Starman. On Christmas night, the dinner will have ham, sausage or bigos; a soup made from sauerkraut and sausage. They make Christmas tree ornaments after they eat to hang on the Christmas tree.

It is extremely obvious that Poland is full of traditions when it comes to Christmas. They have a set way of doing everything and when things do not go that way, and then something is not good. They tend to be superstitious but at the same time have a good time.