I saw the post on who's Irish and it got me to thinking about who is Polish on this forum. I am now in the beginning stages of trying to bring some Polish customs/ways into my life and hope that doing so will provide me and family with something to hold on to.

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), December 20, 2001

Answers

Tom, I am Polish and we still practice some of the traditions. I am not sure how many are "Polish Traditions" and how many are my Polish families traditions. I do know Christams starts when the fist star appears in the evening sky Dec 24th. I also know it is customary to place an extra setting at the table for the Christ child, hay or straw was placed under the that table setting. We used to have a thin wafer bread, unlevened, sent by relatives from Poland that my father said blessing over and we passed around, I can't remember the name of it but it was similar to a large communion host (if your Catholic). It has been years since we did this, loosing track of Polish relatives since Babcci(grandma) died, she was an immigrant as was Dzadji (grandpa) Its wonderful you are teaching you kids about thier heritage, wished I would have listened more and talked less as a kid! We have always insisted our kids use some of the Polish I learned as a kid, everthing from granparents names to foods, at least everthing I can remember. Take time at the library and learn a bit more yourself, I think you will find we share a very rich heritage. Boze Dom tom

-- tom (wysfarm@raex.com), December 20, 2001.

Hi, Tom! I'm 1/2 Polish and only the third generation in America from my mother's side of my family. Unfortunately, a lot of the customs weren't passed down. For instance, my grandparents spoke Polish but only to each other and other adults but never taught their children. I would have liked growing up with more traditions from my heritage. The one thing we did do every year was to break "oplackey" (I'm spelling phonetically - I have no idea how t is really spelled!) at the beginning of Christmas dinner. This is the same thing as the Communion wafer (I guess this is a Polish/Catholic tradition) but it is made in big sheets with ornate religious pictures imprinted in it. Just before Christmas the priest blesses it and then everyone takes some home. (I always loved getting my grandmother's Christmas card with the small square of oplackey tucked in it!) On Christmas, a small piece of this is placed at each place setting at the table. While holding your piece, you wish each person individually peace, good health, etc. They return the same to you and you both break off a small piece of the other person's oplackey and eat it. This is continued around the table until everyone has broken "bread" with each person at the table. You then eat any remaining oplackey.

Another Polish tradition was to throw nuts (in the shell) when you were visitng friends and family as you entered their house. There was a blessing said (in Polish) while you did this wishing them health, happiness, etc. My grandfather was usually drunk during this process so decorations got broken. I can see why my family didn't continue this tradition. ;-)

-- Bren (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), December 20, 2001.

Hello Tom,

A friend of mine, (who is Polish) invited me to Christmas dinner one year. He told me it was an old Polish tradition to put the head of the household(s) wallet under the table setting where he/she sat. This was to assure prosperity in the upcoming year.

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), December 20, 2001.

I am 1/2 polish - also 3rd generation in America. Our big holiday is Easter and have tons of customs and traditions but for some reason there don't seem to be any Christmas customs/traditions. Your question got me thinking and so I asked my grandmother who lives with us (she will be 91 on Saturday and still does the dishes and helps with laundry and only uses a cane to walk with occasionally!). She said the Polish celebrated mostly like the rest of the Europeans. Big dinner on Christmas Eve (just your regular polish foods but with a couple of more expensive meats or vegetable dishes) and then off to midnight mass. Midnight mass was the big event. Gifts were small token gifts on Christmas day - mostly for the children. She said although Christmas was a holiday everyone looked forward to, Easter was the high holdiay because of the risen Christ. Most Poles didn't have a much money and could only afford one really big day of the year and Easter was that day. That's probably why the other Polish folks don't recall anything major at Christmas -- but just ask us all about our Easter......

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), December 20, 2001.

I'm of 100% Polish stock, though my parents were born here. My father's mother really did up the wigilia(vigil) dinner, as it was called. First the oplatki, the wafer mentioned before, which is exchanged between all members of the family. It's still available at ethnic Catholic parishes and at the Christmas Wafer Company in New York. Usually we start off with a soup, traditionally mushroom. By the way, with no offense to the previous poster, the meal on Christmas is traditionally meatless, as this was an ember day (day of abstinence from meat). Then the meal continued with various types of fish (I usually have pickled herring and cod or flounder), boiled potatoes, pierogi, sauerkraut stewed with mushrooms, plain fried mushrooms, and maybe a salad. There were supposed to be 12 courses, but many make a twelve fruit salad or compote to symbolize the 12 (for the apostles? or the twelve days of Christmas?) There is also a dish called kutia, made of cooked bulgur wheat and honey. I've heard there's a site www.polishworld.com which has recipes, but I haven't checked it out. Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia!

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), December 20, 2001.

Sorry, that is, the Christmas EVE meal was meatless.

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), December 20, 2001.

http://www.polishworld.com/christmas/

-- Debbie in MO (nothere@work.com), December 21, 2001.

I told Grandma about the meatless dinner, wafer and wallet. She said..."well, come to think of it. They are right! We didn't have meat! In fact we had pickled herring on the table and I hated pickled herring!" She said they did not do the wafer but has heard of it but never heard of the wallet. She said it might be a regional culture. Like in America the southerners have thier customs, westerners theirs, etc. They were a very poor working class people so they might have done less than other poles -- but never "felt" poor!

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), December 21, 2001.

Przywitania,

The things I have found are too many to list here but one did strike my eye and that was about giving presents (Podarunki) It seems in Old Polish tradition no presents were exchanged on Christmas. Children had already been visted on December 6th by St. Nicholas and that New Years Day was the traditional time for gift-giving. (I really like that idea, it seems to make more since while at the same time letting Christmas day be Christmas day)

Through the years because of cultural influences of Germany,Russia and Austria it is now the norm to exchange gifts on Christmas eve.

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), December 21, 2001.

I am writing to you from our cabin in a small village near Wadowice, Poland. “The Boss” sent me here to work eleven years ago and I have been all over the country since. There was a lot of adjustment necessary to change from an American to Polish environment, but I have become fluent in Polish with the exception of writing. My Polish wife helps me with that. I've read the other answers and they are generally on target, yet I want to fill in more detail for you, especially about modern Poland. The Christmas season traditionally begins here with the first Sunday in Advent. Poles are supposed to attend morning mass daily during this time. Traditionally they walk to church carrying paper lanterns with a candle inside. The sides have designs cut out of them and they cast neat light shadows on the snow. This custom is fading, as more and more use cars. During Advent no one has a tree yet nor do you see, usually, any decorations and no Polish carols are sung or broadcast on the radio. The next event happens on December 6th, with St. Mikolaj coming to distribute presents to the children. Half the seasons presents are given at this time. December 24th is the big day. The father's role is to bring in the tree (choinka; hoy-inka), set it up and then deal with the carp- killing, cleaning, etc while the rest of the family busy themselves with tree decoration or food prep. Carp is the universal food found on the table everywhere in Poland. It is almost always batter fried. Soup is usually beet, whether white or red; some regions and families have greater variation. This day is one of fasting from meat and alcohol. Everything begins when the youngest child sights the first star: usually the sky is overcast, but if not, it means a beginning around 4pm. Yes, usually there is a bit of straw under the tablecloth (signifies the manger) and some attempt to signify 12, whether 12 courses or twelve ingredients in a salad. I don't know the reason why. Everywhere in Poland they set an extra place for an unexpected guest- the Christ child. If someone happens to come, he uses that place and another is promptly set. Poles are very sensitive at this time to people alone for whatever reason. They go out of their way to make sure no one sits home alone on Christmas Eve (wigilia; vee-gee- lee-a). After sighting the star, the father then takes the wafer or wafers if there are many people, says a prayer and if one wafer, he breaks off a substantial piece and hands it to each person present. If there is a crowd, usually there are smaller, almost personal sized wafers not requiring breaking. This is or should be a very intimate time where each person goes one by one to each of the others present, asks for forgiveness if there is some grievance between them, then wishes or more correctly blesses that person for the upcoming year. When each person has done this they break a piece off the wafer of the other person, eat it, embrace each other and move on. I am personally touched by this tradition and want to keep it in our home. Presents are exchanged after the meal, then everyone goes off to midnight mass, which ends the fast. The official holiday is two days, 25-26 of Dec., which are used to visit family. Christmas trees used to stand until Feb 2nd, but now they are coming down earlier. Carols are sung until Three Kings day (Jan. 6th) and carollers can still be found- in fact, carolling is undergoing something of a revival here. All carollers must keep to a nativity theme, but how they do it depends on what part of Poland they live in. Our area near Krakow has groups of boys going around carrying homemade mangers, but elsewhere each boy dresses in costume as one of the nativity characters- kings, sheperds, life, death, angels, etc. I enjoy presenting Poland to those who haven't yet experienced her and am happy to answer questions about this or other holiday or festal traditions (weddings, funerals, christenings, birthdays, etc.) or just daily life. Steven Hylan

-- Steven Hylan (hylan@man.pl), December 22, 2001.

My mother's family came from Poland, my great grandparents immigrated here in the late 1800's. My father's from Sweden. Neither of my parents could speak english when they started school and were picked on, eventually they learned english, but spoke it broken. I so wished that they would have taught my brother and I but they didn't. Their reasoning was that they didn't want us to be picked on as well. I did manage to pick up on a few words.

We celebrated Christmas in the Swedish traditions and Easter in the Polish. I had to chuckle about the pickled herring. My father used to make it around Christmas time and also buy many of the traditional foods from a Swedish market in Jamestown, NY (grew up near there). He would get the herring, lutfisk, etc from there. I had no choice, i was fed pickled herring when i was a baby so i had no say in it, but I love it! I was so depressed when I wanted to get more pickled herring after the store closed but couldn't find any anywhere. I even did an internet search, but nothing. Even posted to the forum here last yr. I got a few leads.

Then Easter was fun, my mom and I would go to Buffalo, NY and to the Broadway market to get foods, we had babka, kielbasa, pieogori (sp?), and a whole bunch of other goodies. Here is their website if anyone is interested, they even ship. http://www.broadwaymarket.com/

I miss the celebrations now that we are here in AR and I try to carry on the traditions, but its hard when I can't find the foods. I really enjoyed reading this thread, brought back a lot of memories.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), December 22, 2001.

Bernice, up here (in Connecticut) pickled herring is available in the grocery stores, usually in the dairy section. One brand is Vita. I love it too, my kids don't, so there's all the more for me and my husband!

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), December 22, 2001.

Thank you, Thank you all for the responses both here and privately, I do believe we number a few and it does seems like the one tieing thread is we all would like to know more about our Polish heritage and it seems alot of us are sorry we did not learn more from our parents or grandparents including me. For me its hard to imagine what my and our parents and grandparents went through here in this country in the late 1800's and early 1900's just because their last name was different, because by the time I was 20 mine were all gone and I never got a chance to talk to them about it.

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), December 23, 2001.