Christmas traditions part 1

Hello everyone! 

Today the topic will be completely different. I will not talk about traveling but about holidays. Yesterday in Poland was the last holiday day, celebrated by few people and sporadically called the third holiday. In the next few blogs I would like to introduce you to Christmas traditions. 

I will start with the most well-known Christmas customs, which are deeply rooted in Polish society. 
Preparations for Christmas have been going on since the first days of December. Gingerbread, patties and “uszka” (small dumplings usually filled with flavourful wild forest mushrooms and/or minced meat) have been baked in many homes since the beginning of Advent. Advent is a season of the liturgical year observed as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. In Poland, the most important day of Christmas is Christmas Eve. It is a day when the whole family gathers to eat together in the evening, share a Christmas wafer and ... open presents. Not only children are waiting for Christmas Eve, but also adults, this beautiful day is filled with magic, symbols and traditions. So after this introduction I will start telling you about our habits. 
  • Hay under the tablecloth - this custom dates back to pagan times and is related to the old agrarian feast. According to tradition, hay should be placed under a tablecloth. It symbolizes the birth of Jesus in poverty. 
  • The first star - traditionally a Christmas Eve supper begins with the first star in the sky. This is a symbolic reference to the Star of Bethlehem, meaning the birth of Jesus, which according to the Bible on the east side of the sky saw the Three Kings. 
  • Communal prayer - Christmas Eve dinner, begins with prayer and reading a fragment of the Gospel according to St. Matthew or St. Luke, regarding the birth of Jesus. 
I will leave you for now with these first three traditions, I hope you are curious about the rest. 



Bye Bye! 

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