Miesiąc: grudzień 2017

New dreams, new hopes, new experiences and new joys!

Whishing you good health and prosperity in this year!

 

„The new year stands  before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals”.   Melody Beattile

• Before Christmas, children at schools take part in „Jasełka” (Nativity Plays).
• Christmas Holidays start on the 24th of December.
• Christmas Eve is known as ‘Wigilia’.
• The main Christmas meal is called ‘Kolacja wigilijna’.
• Hay is hidden under the tablecloth (whoever draws the longest/the straightest straw will have a good Year).
• An extra plate is put on the dinner table for ‘an unexpected guest’.
• Once the first star is in the sky and all Christmas dishes are cooked the family gathers around the table and the celebration begins.
• Family members share Christmas wafer which is called ‘opłatek’ and wish all the best to each other.
• There are 12 dishes on the table (it referrs to the twelve apostoles), for example: borsch (beetroot soup), mushroom soup, carp, herrings in cream and oil, cabbage with peas,noodles with poppy, dumplings with mushrooms and cabbage, kutia (boiled wheat with honey, poppy, nuts and raisins, makowiec (the poppy seed cake).
• After Christmas dinner we give presents to each other.
• At midnight between the 24th and 25th of December Midnight Mass takes place.
• Keeping a scale from the Christmas carp in your wallet will bring you money throughout the year.
• Some people say that at midnight the animals can talk.
• The 25th of December is the day of Christ’s birth. Polish families go to the church, everybody sings carols, enjoys themselves.
• The last day of Christmas is the 26th of December. In Poland we call it‘the second day of holidays’. For many families, it’s the time to meet and spend time together.

We hope now you know something more about this time of the year in Poland and you are going to enjoy it as much as we do!

Class 5b