Poles are seen as a nation of fun lovers who enjoy festivities, traditions and centuries-old customs. The most ancient rituals, especially those dating back to pagan times, have long lost their magical character, becoming a colourful vestige of the past and a form of amusement. Links with tradition are felt the strongest during the greatest religious feasts, such as Christmas, Easter, Corpus Christi processions and All Saints' Day. Pilgrimages to holy sites are very popular; these include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in CzÄ™stochowa for Catholics; the tomb of Rabbi Elimelech in Lezajsk for Jews, the Grabarka Sanctuary for Orthodox Christians.
The two main national holidays are the anniversary of the restoration of independence in 1918, celebrated on 11 November, and the anniversary of the passing of Poland's first Constitution on 3 May 1791. These are official holidays with ceremonies, marches, concerts and other festivities.
Other holidays, quite different in character, include Women's Day (8 March; today much less popular than under Communism), Mother's Day (26 May), Granny's Day (21 January) and Children's Day (1 June), all less public and celebrated first and foremost at home.
A well-established Polish tradition is the celebration of Andrzejki (St. Andrew's Day) - the last festive day before Advent, with fortune-telling to check what the new year will bring. The best-known method is by pouring hot wax into cold water and "reading" its shapes.
Christmas is a very festive holiday in Poland. Many customs, ceremonies and beliefs centre around Christmas Eve, a special day in Polish homes. An important element contributing to its dignified atmosphere are the Christmas decorations, notably a beautifully adorned Christmas tree. Today it would be difficult to imagine Christmas without it, although it's one of the newest traditions: the first trees appeared in Poland in the 19th century, mainly in cities, introduced by Germans and Protestants of German origin. Gradually the custom gained popularity all across Poland. Before that, Polish houses used to be decorated with green branches of fir, spruce or pine.
Another element of the traditional Christmas decorations were sheaves of wheat and rye, hay and straw. They were supposed to bring good crops and remind everyone of the poverty in which Jesus was born. The custom has survived in the form of a small bunch of hay put under the tablecloth. In some houses this is accompanied today by money, a fish scale or bone put into a wallet - all to ensure affluence in the new year. An extra set of plates and cutlery is laid on the table for an unexpected guest. Sometimes an empty plate is a reminder of those who have passed away.
Christmas Eve was believed to affect the entire new year. For this reason, it had to be spent in harmony and peace, with everyone showing the utmost kindness to one another. Today it is still devoted to long preparations for Christmas Eve dinner, all the work having to be done before dusk. Then the whole family sit down to dine together, in the most important event on that day.
Traditionally, Christmas Eve dinner begins when the first star has appears in the sky. First, there is a prayer, sometimes with a passage from scripture about Jesus' birth being read out. Then the family wish one another all the best for the new year and, as a sign of reconciliation, love, friendship and peace, share opłatek Christmas wafers that symbolise holy bread. Orthodox Christians do the same before their Christmas Eve meal by sharingproskura or prosfera, which is unleavened bread.
The dinner consists only of meatless dishes. Traditionally, there should be twelve courses - reflecting the number of months in the year or, in different interpretation, Christ's apostles.
In practice, hardly anybody bothers to count them; the more food is on the table, the more auspicious the next year will be. You at least have to taste everything. This custom derives from the ancient tradition of respect for the fruits of the earth. After dinner, Christmas carols are sung. Many people end the day by attending the Midnight Mass known as Pasterka (the Shepherds' Mass).
Christmas Eve dinner past and present
Today Christmas Eve dinner is sumptuous and diversified. Typical dishes include barszcz beetroot soup with mushrooms or uszka (dumplings stuffed with mushrooms), mushroom soup, a cabbage dish (usually plain cabbage with mushrooms or pierogi with cabbage and mushrooms), sweet dumplings with poppy seeds, pastries, cakes, fruit, nuts, sweets and a compote drink made from stewed prunes, dried pears and apples. The main treat, though, is fish. The Polish cuisine is noted for a variety of fish dishes: soups, herring salads, fish with sauce, cream or jelly, fish in aspic, baked, fried or boiled fish. A traditional Christmas delicacy is carp or pike in grey sauce with vegetables, almonds, raisins, spices, wine or beer. The obligatory pastries and cakes include poppy-seed twists, honey gingerbreads and a dessert made of sweet poppyseeds with honey, raisins and nuts, served with crisp tarts once known asłamańce or kruchalce. One of the oldest Christmas Eve dishes is kutia, which is made of poppy seeds and boiled wheat with honey. This tradition derives from ancient funerary rituals held on the winter solstice.
A popular event during the period after Christmas is thejasełka, a Nativity play staged by amateurs. In the country, you can still see carollers who go from house to house with a star or Nativity crib. Traditionally, they expect to be tipped for the visit; once the payment was in Christmas delicacies, but today these have been largely replaced by small change. The carollers are often dressed up and improvise scenes that loosely draw upon biblical motifs. Typically, the characters are King Herod, Angel, Devil, Death, sometimes Gypsy and a bear or goat.
The New Year's Day and its eve, known in Poland asSylwester (St. Silvester's Day), begins the carnival - a period of balls and parties. One traditional form of having fun was kulig (sleigh rides), for centuries favoured by the Polish gentry and still extremely popular. A cavalcade of horse-pulled sleighs and sledges went from one manor house to another, entertained everywhere with hearty meals followed by dances. Today the rides are less spectacular, usually ending with a bonfire and sausages or the traditional bigos.
The last Thursday of the carnival is a day on which Poles stuff themselves with pÄ…czki (doughnuts) and deep-fried narrow strips of pastry known as chrust or faworki.
The carnival ends with revelry on Shrove Tuesday known as Å›ledzik or Å›ledziówka - the "herring feast", after the herrings eaten on that day as a herald of the coming Lent.
One pagan tradition still popular today is the drowning of the marzanna ("frost maiden"), held on the fourth Sunday of Lent. For our ancestors, the custom was associated with the everlasting rhythm of life. It expressed their joy at the coming of spring, which meant a rebirth of nature, promising crops and abundance, the marzanna was a representation of winter, a straw female effigy, dressed in white and adorned with coral beads and ribbons. In Silesia, she was clad in a beautiful wedding dress with a wreath on her head. Villagers carried the marzanna from house to house, then stripped her and scattered the clothes over the fields. Eventually she was drowned in a river, pond, lake or simply in a big puddle. Sometimes before throwing her into the water the effigy was set on fire. As the marzanna was carried out of the village one way, on the opposite side the villagers carried in the maik- green branches adorned with ribbons, coral beads and flowers. Over centuries this ceremony evolved into a form of amusement. Today drowning the marzanna is mainly done by children on 21 March, which is the first day of spring and an unofficial truants' day.
The most colourful religious feast before Easter is Palm Sunday, celebrated in churches across the country to commemorate Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The main attribute associated with that day are the palms. Despite the name, they hardly resemble the real palm branches with which Jesus was greeted in the Holy City. Typically, they are bouquets of common box, dried flowers and willow twigs. Some regions are noted for particularly impressive palms, several metres high and decorated with coloured ribbons, dyed grasses, dried or artificial flowers. In the past it was believed that a palm blessed at a mass has special properties; for example, it can prevent disease. After the mass, people would hit one another with their palms, exchanging wishes of health, wealth and bumper crops.
On Holy Saturday people bring baskets of their Easter fare to church for a special blessing for all the different Easter foods. This typically Polish tradition dates back to the 14th century. Originally, only a baked lamb made of bread was blessed, but today the basket should contain at least seven kinds of food, each with its own symbolism.Bread, ensuring good fortune, is in Christianity first and foremost a symbol of Christ's body. Eggs stands for re-birth, life's victory over death. Salt is a life-giving mineral, once believed to keep away all evil. Smoked meatensures health, fertility and abundance. Cheeserepresents friendship between man and nature.Horseradish is a symbol of strength and physical fitness.Cake (usually an Easter pound cake, round wheat cake and mazurek) was the last item to appear in the Easter basket and it symbolises skills and perfection. Tradition has it that the cake should be home-made. Nowadays some people also have chocolate and tropical fruits in their Easter baskets. This custom developed during the Communist period, when chocolate and imported fruit were rarities.
Easter eggs
Another Easter custom is the tradition of decorating eggs. The oldest Polish Easter egg comes from the 10th century and was found at an excavation site in Ostrów. Interestingly, it was made in a technique very much like those used today.
Decorating Easter eggs has become an element of folk culture, with distinct regional differences. Traditionally, before they are dyed the eggs are painted over (using a funnel-like tool) with a pattern in molten wax, which, when dry, will not adsorb the dye and is later scraped away to leave a traced decoration on the painted egg. In some regions, white bulrush cores and coloured wool or miniature paper cut-outs are glued to the egg shell. A Pomeranian variety is an egg in one colour only, obtained by using natural dyes from leaves, tree bark, onion scales, cones, mallow flowers, camomile, reed, nut shells, nettle leaves, larch needles and many other plants. In Silesia, dyed eggs are decorated with elaborate patterns scraped off the dyed shell with a sharp stylus.
Decorating eggs was once women's handicraft. Dyed or painted eggs were first presented to family members and godchildren, and then, during the week following Easter, to friends. Offering an Easter egg to a boy or girl was seen as a token of affection.
As tradition requires, the blessed food products are eaten at a ceremonial breakfast after the Resurrection Mass on Easter Sunday. The whole family sits down to a table lavishly laid with hams, sausages, pates, roulades, roast pork loins, a variety of poultry dishes, eggs, pound cakes, mazureks, round wheat cakes, cheesecakes, etc., etc. Hot dishes include żur with white sausage or smoked bacon, horseradish soup with a hard-boiled egg and white sausage, or barszcz consommé, also served with an egg. The table is covered with a snow-white cloth and decorated with Easter eggs, spring flowers, catkins, green cress compositions and the essential Easter lamb made of cake or sugar.
Easter Monday, Åšmigus-dyngus, is a day on which boys sprinkle girls with water. The original meaning of this ancient custom, which remains extremely popular today, has faded into oblivion. Perhaps it was a rite of purification to ensure fertility. In many places not only women were sprinkled, but the earth and cows as well - for better crops and more milk.
There are also many local Easter customs. Cracow has its long-established Emaus, a folk festivity commemorating the two disciples' meeting the Risen Jesus on the road to Emaus. Hucksters put up their stalls laden with trinkets, pipes and sweets. Apprentices and farmhands from nearby villages would court girls by hitting them with willow twigs and fighting with sticks to show off. Crowds would gather at churches to see a procession of religious brotherhoods in full outfit, with drums, standards and holy pictures. Today, sadly, traditional toys and crafts on the stalls are being replaced by modern plastic gadgets, but despite that, Emaus is still great fun for both children and adults alike.
