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1. Polish Christmas & New YearPolish Christmas & New Year
CustomsCustoms

2. Polish Christmas CustomsPolish Christmas Customs
Preparations
The preparation for Christmas begins 4 weeks before the actual
celebration – the whole period is called Advent.
During Advent everything is directed to coming Christmas:
• Buying gifts;
• Attending morning masses during whole advent which are called
Roraty;
• Sending Christmas Cards with good wishes;
Nearly everywhere women clean windows in apartments and houses
just before Christmas. The insides of the houses are also cleaned
thoroughly. It is believed that if a house is dirty on Christmas Eve, it will
remain dirty all next year.
The preparations should end by before the Christmas Eve comes.

3. Polish Christmas CustomsPolish Christmas Customs
Christmas Eve – Wigilia
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is either real or artificial which is decorated on Chrismas
Eve – usually by children.
The Christmas tree is adorned with candles or lights, thin strips of
transparent paper (angel's hair), and home-made paper chains, glass balls.
The Christmas presents must be put under the Christmas tree. Children
should not see who is putting the presents under the Christmas tree.

4. Polish ChristmasPolish Christmas
CustomsCustoms
Christmas Eve – Wigilia
Christmas Table
The table for the Christmas supper must be prepared carefully.
There is a custom that the table has to have one place reserved for the
unexpected guest.
A piece of hay is put under the table cloth – it resembles the hay in the
manger of the Child Jesus.
The white wafer (Oplatek) blessed by the priest is put on the table.

5. Polish Christmas CustomsPolish Christmas Customs
Christmas Eve – Wigilia
Christmas Supper
Traditionally one should not eat anything before the Christmas supper starts.
The Christmas supper starts when the first star comes out. After the prayer
lead by the father the people share the „oplatek” with the others passing
the Christmas greetings. The farmers share „oplatek” also with their
livestock.
There is a custom of having 12 dishes for the supper.
The supper should not include meat, but only simple Lenten dishes.
Traditionally, Poles eat:
• CARP – a large freshwater fish that lives in lakes, pools and slow-moving
rivers.

6. Christmas supper• Polish dumplings (pierogi)
with mushrooms and cabbage ,
• red beetroot soup.
• In some regions they eat the mixture of wheat grain, honey and nuts –
so called kutia.
• We drink the compote of dried fruit. The supper lasts very long.
• After the supper people go to the church to take part in the Christmas
Midnight Mass.

7. Polish Christmas CustomsPolish Christmas Customs
Christmas Day – first holiday
Christmas Day (25th December) starts with the breakfast which includes
meat. No cleaning, nor cooking are allowed on that day; only previously
cooked food is heated. This is a day of joy, for Jesus was born. On
Christmas Day, people start to observe the weather very closely. It is
believed that each day foretells the weather for a certain month of the
following year.
In Poland, Christmas period lasts Twelve Days (Days of harmony and good
will.) The evenings of this twelve-days period are known as swiete
wieczory, or holy evenings.

8. Polish Christmas CustomsPolish Christmas Customs
St. Stephen’s Day – second holiday
St. Stephen's Day (26 December) is known as the second holiday. This is a day
for visiting and exchanging Christmas greetings. When night begins to fall,
you can hear stamping and jingling, followed by Christmas carol singing
outside. Carolers begin their wandering from home to home. It is a live
performance usually played by twelve young boys. They sing pastoral
songs and carols, and when let into a house, perform scenes from King
Herod's life. At the end, the performers are offered refreshments and
some money.

10. Polish New Year CustomsPolish New Year Customs
New Year’s Eve
The celebration of the New Year’s Eve in Poland is up to the people. Some go
to the big balls. Some attend private dancing parties. Some celebrate on
the streets. Some prefer time with their families.

11. Warsaw- capital city of Poland in
December
The Old Town in Warsaw in December
Hotel Bristol
Christmas decorations
Warsaw’s Mermaid
The Krakow Suburb in Warsaw

12. Polish Epiphany CustomsPolish Epiphany Customs
Epiphany – Feast of the Three
Kings – 6 January
The evening of the Feast of the Three Kings was called szczodry
wieczor, which means a bountiful or plentiful evening. On the
Feast, the family takes blessed chalk, foil, and incense,
marking the home with the initials of the Three Wise Men
along with the year (K+M+B year). This is done to bless the
home and provide protection for those within against illness
and misfortune. Often the parish priest--or in rural villages, the
parish organist--comes to bless the home at this special time.
The Feast of the Three Kings ends the swiete wieczory -- the
twelve holy nights that began on Christmas Day--and signals
the beginning of zapusty, or carnival time.

13. Thank you for your atencion

Merry Christmas !!!

14. We wish you Merry Christmas and a happy New
Year
Students from Primary School in
Warsaw
Macieja Aleksego Dawidowskiego
„Alka”