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Celebrating Christmas in Poland [52]
is it celebrated much?
it is celbrated but in family circles, you rather won't find big parties in the city, some people go snowing of course, but mostly after the Christmas Eve (24th Dec), because a family supper (with minimum 13 dishes) on Christmas Eve is probably the strongest traditional event in Poland (and we give presents that evening, too, you may put them under the Xmas tree, but in our family we allow the children to unwrap their gifts after the supper, otherwise they'd be playing with the new toys instead of participating in the supper, but we usually have a Santa Claus, so it's not a problem, they have to wait for the Santa anyway). Before the supper the common tradition is sharing "opłatek" (host - a rectangular and very thin slice of white, light, eucharist bread baked mostly by nuns, monks or generally churches, easy to purchase, they often bring it to your home during the week before Xmas and expect a small "offer", maybe 10 - 20 złoty), when sharing the host, you wish all your family/frineds (one by one) all the best in the next year (adding some personilzed wishes is always required).
so if you need to buy things for the Christmas, do it before 24th Dec, latest on 24th in the morning, because since the early afternoon most shops and other facilities would be closed.
religious people go to a midnight mass (Pasterka) held by all churches on the 24th/25th night, the mass is quite long (maybe 1,5-2 hrs) with lots of singing carols, some typically Polish, some international, but with Polish lyrics), and therefore some more tired (or a little drunk) people may even fall asleep :)
