Christmas in Poland
Advent
Advent is the beginning of the Christmas season in Poland. People usually give up something for advent, like lent. People usually don't have parties during lent but start to prepare their homes for Christmas.
Advent is the beginning of the Christmas season in Poland. People usually give up something for advent, like lent. People usually don't have parties during lent but start to prepare their homes for Christmas.
Mikołajki is on the 6th of December. Santa Claus comes for this festival to give the children presents. |
The Christmas Market in Kraków
There is a beautiful market in Rynek Głowny for Christmas. Here are some photographs of the market:
There is a beautiful market in Rynek Głowny for Christmas. Here are some photographs of the market:
Szopki
Kraków’s famous szopki are portable theatres which were used in the past to perform Nativity plays for local villages. The people of Kraków continue to make skopki and enter them into a competition in December. The best of them are stored in the City of Krakow Historical Museum. If you look closely you can often see references to Kraków’s stories, e.g. Pan Twardowski who made a pact with the devil. The devil played a trick on him. He was on his way down to hell when God took pity on him and put him on the moon. He’s on the moon since then, looking down on us.
Kraków’s famous szopki are portable theatres which were used in the past to perform Nativity plays for local villages. The people of Kraków continue to make skopki and enter them into a competition in December. The best of them are stored in the City of Krakow Historical Museum. If you look closely you can often see references to Kraków’s stories, e.g. Pan Twardowski who made a pact with the devil. The devil played a trick on him. He was on his way down to hell when God took pity on him and put him on the moon. He’s on the moon since then, looking down on us.
Some other kinds of cribs you might see outside churches, in towns and villages or in people's homes:
Christmas Eve
Christmas dinner is eaten on Christmas Eve. Everyone fasts for the day and only eats when they see the first star in the sky.
Christmas dinner is eaten on Christmas Eve. Everyone fasts for the day and only eats when they see the first star in the sky.
The fast is broken with opłatek. Everyone has a wafer. As each person breaks off a piece from someone else's wafer they wish them well for the following year.
Everyone sits at the table and no one gets up again until all 12 courses have been eaten. Each area has different types of food but no meat is eaten. Instead fish such as carp is popular. Here are some examples:
After the last dish has been eaten everyone prays and the table is cleared. Each person keeps the dried fish scales which have been taken from the carp. The fish scales are kept in your wallet to give you good fortune for the year.
At midnight everyone goes to midnight mass.
On St Stephens's Day (26th of December) Kolędnicy go from house to house singing carols. They are given presents. Generally you see one person dressed up as the devil, one as an angel, one carries a star and one carries a crib. |
New Year's Eve (Sylwester)
People have parties and light bonfires for New Year's Eve. At midnight they set off fireworks.
People have parties and light bonfires for New Year's Eve. At midnight they set off fireworks.