Cultures

A Christmas Season in Poland

In today's society, it is very important to have knowledge of the different cultures that surround us. Most individuals that are born and raised in America practice the beliefs and social life of Americans. Most Americans tend to forget there are other cultures that surround us in our everyday life. However being born and raised as Americans, it is easy to ignore our descendents and our ancestors' cultural background. In my case, my ancestors were Polish and have a very different cultural background than I do as an American. For instance, the Christmas season, which one would believe is celebrated the same way throughout the world, is in fact celebrated in various different ways.

In Poland, there is no Thanksgiving like in the USA. Therefore, there is not any special designated shopping day to start the Christmas season. The Polish Christmas season begins November 30th with a celebration called St. Andrew's Day. There is a long tradition of fortune telling especially for non-married girls on the November 30th in Poland. Since November 30th is under a patronage of St. Andrew the habit of fortune telling is called St. Andrew's Day. The main purpose of St. Andrew Day celebrations is to predict the future of unmarried girls, especially their prospects for a good marriage. St. Andrew's Day is a night of magic for young girls (Urban-Klaehn, 2005).

The next day of celebration during the Christmas season is St. Barbara's Day. One of the most celebrated days associated with workers group is St. Barbara's Day on December 4th. St. Barbara is a patron of coal miners. Miners' profession was always considered dangerous, but prestigious, therefore, this day called "Barbуrka" or Barburka" was celebrated for centuries in a spectacular way. The name of the feast originates from St. Barbara as a patron (Pace, 1996).

On St. Barbara's Day, miners are dressed in the special uniforms. The uniform consists of a black suit and hat with a feather. The color of the feather, white, red, or black, depends on the rank of the miner. Miners wear their decorative uniforms not only during Barborka, but also for weddings, funerals, and other important political or social ceremonies (Urban-Klaehn, 2005).

Christmas and St. Nicolas Days are not celebrated at the same time in Poland, but three weeks apart. St. Claus Day, known as St. Nicolas Day in America, is celebrated on December 6th. Many parties are organized mainly for kids (Pace, 1996). This is a day when St. Claus is visiting all kids. St. Claus will visit some children in person during the evening and others secretly during night. In some regions of Poland St. Claus will only bring gifts on the 6th day of December. St. Claus Day originates from the orthodox religious tradition. Communistic( You mean communist Russia) Russia first replaced St. Nicolas with "Grandfather Frost" in the attempt to erase any religious meaning. Polish communistic rulers also tried to obliterate any religious connotations of Christmas (Houston, 2004).

However, almost all children in Poland receive one gift on St Claus Day. This is something not known in American tradition. It is a birch for beating and it is usually attached to a bag with candies. This birch serves as a warning for all children that if they do not improve their behavior the only gift they will receive next year will be a bigger birch (Pace, 1996). Although, nobody takes it seriously, mischievous children as a rule usually receive bigger birches than the well-behaved children. This is very similar to American children that receive switches and ashes for Christmas (Houston, 2004).

Christmas Eve in Poland is called "Wigilia." The Latin origins of the word Wigilia are the same as those of the English word "vigil," meaning keeping watch in expectation of something. Of course, what the Christian world awaits on this date is the birth of Jesus, the Christ Child. The Catholic custom is that of attending midnight Mass or "Pasterka," a name that comes from "pasterze" the Polish word for shepherds who, according to the evangelists, were the first to greet the New Born King. Christmas Eve is considered the most important point of Christmas together with the midnight mass (Houston, 2004).

This celebration begins with the sharing of the " Oplatek ", and by the Wigilia dinner. The Oplatek, frail, perishable, has for all Poles a mystical meaning, which cannot be explained logically. At Christmas time, it is sent to absent members and close friends in strange lands, who in their loneliness, partake of it, as of communion with loved ones at home (Houston, 2004).

The Oplatek, of little monetary value, is the treasured link that brings warm memories of Poland to her children settled in different parts of the world. Losing reality for the moment, they once again dream that they are seated with the family at the Wigilia table, enjoying the blessing, forgiveness, and warmth of those under the parental roof. The most cherished sentiments in the Oplatek ceremony are reconciliation and the coming together of all (Urban-Klaehn, 2005).

After the Wigilia dinner, the attention could turn to the Christmas tree. If the tree were in a different room, its doors would be opened. It was the first sight of the wondrous tree decorated with glass apples, paper chains, beautiful straw and paper ornaments and candles. In addition, under the tree lay the packages from among which one could retrieve one's own and find out what marvelous and exciting things they contained (Pace, 1996).

The Christmas tree came to Poland just a hundred years ago and with it, the custom of giving gifts on Christmas Eve. German settlers who came to Poland in massive numbers during the period of the partitions from 1795 to 1918 when Poland was occupied by the Germans, Russians, and Austrians brought the Christmas tree to Poland (Pace, 1996). Various decorations, among them the "forbidden fruit," that is apples, were hanged on the tree's branches and paper chains, symbolizing the serpent were draped on the tree. The Christmas tree was thus a symbol of the Garden of Eden's tree of life (Urban-Klaehn, 2005).

The other important components of Christmas decorations were straw and hay under a white tablecloth. This evoked the Bethlehem manger, but the use of straw dates from even earlier Polish tradition, when it was thought of as the hair of Mother Earth, a symbol of fertility and plenty. Thus, sheaves of wheat were placed in the four corners of the room and, less frequently, a pleated straw cord would be made to girth the lower part of the holiday table. In urban settings, this custom was displacing with a handful of straw on a plate tied together with a ribbon