Polish Names day traditions? Presents? Food?

Hi Everyone,
Its my boyfriends Rafał's name day on the 24th of October. Im interested to know, what gift I should get him. Is there anything special you make to eat on names days or a special present?

Any suggestions would be very helpful

Thanx
xXx

Take him to church on his name day to be blessed!

I'm just kidding. A name day is much like a birthday, so I suggest you do what you would normally do on his birthday.

yup. name day is basically a sub for b-day.

Be sure to wish him "Wszystkiego najlepszego w dniu imienin" and sing him "Sto lat". There are no candles on the cake. For the age conscious namedays are superior to birthdays, because no-one ever asks: "ANd which name-day is this?"

From what I have always thought young people don't celebrate name days.

buraki do lol

mhm i agree with Wyspianska. but it depends on where you live. if u need the feel to celebrate it, then go for it! =D also...!!


yea u should say that < its a happy feeling when its heard =3

The young Poles who do not celebrate namedays are brainless dolts who wait for the 3Ms (McDonald's, Madonna and MTV) to tell them what to do. LOL!

thanks for the compliment. I'm not THAT young, but I sure never celebrate my nameday, and never did - there was no such custom in my family. we always went for birthdays. Poland is not as homogeneous as some would like to believe.

Celebrating your names day is very old fashioned and many people simply don't bother with it, why are you being such a sh*t? I remember we used to celebrate my late Nan's imieniny, all her sisters and friends would come over for tea and biscuits and chat about the olden days, but my folks don't celebrate theirs, nor do my sisters because we just don't. I know people my age who celebrate their namesday but like i said, they're chavs just looking for an extra excuse to get p*ssed, it's got absolutely nothing to do with being a true Pole and remembering your roots etc. Macdonalds, Madonna and mtv? Where did you get that crappy line from? You an American Pole or something, cos them guys usually have this deluded image of Poland and it's people, so over-patriotic that it makes me cringe, with no idea what Poland is really like. Live and let live.

i thoght that every ocassion is good to party, specially for young people...
;)

true, but why hide behind this 'amazing and special traditional value' if it's all about getting drunk anyway? if i wanna get drunk i just go out and get drunk. it really irritates me when them dumb yanks come here with their big gob thinking they know more about Poland than we do ha ha...

actually, at times they do :)
Few on this forum though.

namedays are better then birthdays. :D

they know Poland from their parents stories, they've got this deluded and fairy tale-like image of it, also maybe they read too much of Pan Tadeusz ha ha.

yes, but i think it's limeys' speciality...
;)

I was talking about what you referred to as "yanks", not necessarily Americans with Polish heritage. That fact that you have live somewhere doesn't automatically make you an expert in all the matters of that country.

I had a chance to learn from Americans a thing or two about Poland, and some of them were able to learn from me a thing or two about their country.

oh no no no, the Americans (especially the ones who never even been to Poland and all they have is a Polish sounding surname) are the worst!

lol.... no no no.... limeys are the worst... let's say both and include Canadians...

i'm Polish and i was brought up there and lived there for most of my life so i think i can tell when some yank is talking crap

It's all over PGTX. We're just not compatible. First you admit to not liking Shaun of the Dead and now this. I'm sorry it had to end this way..

LOL Just messing, too much Guinness.....

Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't.
And I did live in Poland too. Possibly longer than you did.

you won't get rid of me that easy...lol...


sharing is carring...

that may be true, but Poland is not the same country as it was 10 or 20 yrs ago

According to Wikipedia, I believe it's called "Name Day" not "Names Day". Just like it's "Birth day" not "Births Day".

Are you saying that all there is to know about Poland happened, or has roots in times no earlier than 10 or 20 years ago?

well no, but it's not a good idea to call Polish people brainless just cos they don't celebrate their imieniny. it might've been popular years ago, but not right now. knowing the history is very very good, but just cos you know what it was like so many years ago doesn't mean it's still like that right now. michal is a brilliant example of such a narrow mind.

But Poles traditionally do celebrate imieniny. Not all for sure. But then, not all Poles celebrate Christmas either.


Sure thing. Except that in the case of names day they still celebrate it.


Speaking of Michal, just a couple of weeks ago they celebrated Michal's imieniny in Poland. I wouldn;t have known if I didn't readPOLISH media. Check the schedule for 2pm in that article.

In fact, today (Oct 15th) the prez. was late at the airport (2.11pm) because Jadwiga Kaczyńska celebrated her name day:

Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, said after the first day of the EU summit that the announcement of President Lech Kaczynski on common shares in the subsequent summit meetings is dangerous from the point of view of the Polish . - Announcing the President is dangerous from the point of view of the Polish - Tusk told reporters. He added that if you fail to settle the question of competence , then , " a last resort" you will need to change the constitution .

In other words, your memory of Poland is so fresh and yet so false :)

but it's all older people like i said, not so much the younger generation. my memory is not false at all, i know people celebrate imieniny cos it's traditional and stuff but not like it used to be. there are people my age who celebrate it of course there are, but it depends on the family they were brought up in. i just find it very very old fashioned and basically people are using it to get presents and get drunk. fair enough if it's your birthday, but name day is just a day in the calendar that you can pick yourself as long as your name appears on it. it's not very serious.

No, you didn't say that at all. This is what you said:


Besides, what's "older people"? 30? 40? 140?

The debate is not about whether it's good, bad or serious. The fact remains that name day is celabrated in Poland. Simple as that.

I would also disagree that name day is a domain of mostly old people. If that was the truth then how come there are literally thousands of small businesses offering organization of name day parties specifically for children?

Also look for the same in high schools, universities and youth organizations. The country is literally infested with name day parties.

Now, speaking of who is outside Poland and for how long - when I lived there I heard about no such services at all. It turns out that name days are even more popular than it was years ago.