Christmas in Poland
Christmas around the world is a wonderful time for celebration and a sharing of Christmas traditions around the world. No matter where you and your family spend their Christmas around the world it is sure to be a time for laughter and cheer.
It is both interesting and intriguing to learn about other Christmas traditions around the world. Christmas around the world for many is a time full of stories, traditions and beliefs, no where is this more true than in the country of Poland where superstition and legend takes precedence.
Christmas Eve in Poland is a time for family gathering and reconciliation, it is also considered to be a night of magic. It was believed long ago that animals talked and had the power to tell the future. The traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner is a grand feast including twelve different dishes representing the twelve months of the year.
Usually the meal will not include any meat except for fish, some of the favorite dishes include; red borscht, mushroom or fish soup, sauerkraut with wild mushrooms or peas, dried fruit compote or kutia for dessert, boiled or fried pierogies and polish dumplings with a variety of fillings. When dinner is finished the host will give a signal for everyone to rise as it is bad luck for only one person to rise at a time.
Christmas around the world would not be complete without the storytelling and Christmas carols sung around the Christmas tree. In Poland after the traditional Christmas Eve dinner the remainder of the night is reserved for exactly that storytelling and caroling while sitting around the beautifully decorated tree with it’s blown glass ornaments, eggshells, colored paper, wafers and straw.
