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The Christmas Customs

16 grudnia 202415 grudnia 2024 by CJO_ANS

The period of Christmas – the period when people celebrate birth of Jesus Christ and can finally spend a longer time with their family and friends. Naturally, in every country people do it slightly different, albeit the core is common: the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Here are some examples of Christmas customs in Poland.

Naturally, the most obvious and iconic custom is decorating Christmas tree. In Poland the tradition of decorating the tree in home is actually quite new – this custom was popularised in the early 19th century with the migration of the Germans to Polish lands. This custom eventually forced out the the older decoration, a “podłaźniczka”. Worth to add, the cutting down of the tree and decorating it is in itself an old tradition. The tree is decorated by various little ornaments, not only the most obvious glass balls but also candles, apples, little angels and many, many more.

Photo taken from LINK by Kostas Dimopoulos

And of course, under the tree there are always presents. Giving presents to people you care for is another very popular custom which became a synonym of Christmas, for it was spread around by popular culture in the twentieth century. But despite it, this custom also has very old roots, as it is related to Three Kings and the presents they gave to baby Jesus in Bethlehem. Giving presents is also associated with legends about Saint Nicholas of Myra giving gifts to people who needed it (like throwing bags of gold to the chimney of a man who was so poor he could even sell his daughters).

Naturally, despite the fact that Saint Nicholas was a model for an old, fat man in red, known as Santa Claus we all know and love, the saint himself wasn’t that cartoonish: Nicholaus slapped a heretical bishop in face during First Council of Nicaea. I guess giving a twig isn’t so hard compared with this.

Photo taken from LINK by Silar

Another famous custom is making a nativity scene: an exhibition showing the scene of Holy Family after the birth of Jesus. Like the previous ones, this custom is also very old. The first nativity scene was made by Saint Francis of Assisi in the 13th century. There are literally a copious amount of versions of this special exhibitions, different depending on the country or even region where the authors are living. Every year you can see a vast majority of diverse nativity scenes, most famous ones are in Cracow.

There are also many customs associated with the Christmas table. People are putting famous 12 dishes on their tables. These dishes can be different, depending on the house where Christmas is celebrated or regions; for example, people in eastern Poland often have kutia on their tables. People also put some hay under their tablecloths, as a symbol of poverty in which Jesus was born. There are also always an additional plate for an unexpected guest who can visit home.

Photo taken from LINK by Diabetes

I want to end this post with something we always do at the start of Christmas Eve Dinner: sharing of the Christmas Wafer between the members of the household. People are always telling each other wishes, usually for health, money and well-being. Wafer sharing is often preceded by reading a fragment from Bible about Jesus’ birth. It’s one of the most iconic and beloved Polish customs.

Of course, there are many, many more Christmas customs, but it will be too much for this one post to name at least half of them. So at the end I just want to wish Merry Christmas to everyone who is reading this!

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