Why Do You Love Poland?

If you honestly believe what you just wrote, kaprys, you must have some dim brain wattage:-) Apparently therefore, it's not part of your personal culture to argue, perhaps violently, with somebody you love or care about, then after the argument, make up, is that what you're saying? This points to a most immature world view, in my opinion.

I love many aspects of Poland, while decrying others which are clearly bad, both for the country as well as the rest of Europe!

well it clearly follows the observation that the world is not black and white - there are aspects of the Polish culture/psyche that are counterconstructive if not downright detrimental and it is easier for foreigners/outsiders to spot them

And back on topic ... Christmas is coming.
And polska wigilia. And all of those wonderful dishes and tunes of kolędy. And time with the people you love ;)

It's nice to keep the traditiions of wigilia wherever you are in the world and whatever you're doing. This year I'm spending the holidays on a beach in Senegal (no time to pop back home to Warsaw right now). I'll miss the barszcz and pierogi, but I'll be sure to save a fish scale in my wallet :-)

One thing I do like about Poland is that if you say (in Polish) happy holiday, nobody gets their panties in a bunch about that.

That'd be ideal of course, but it's not gonna happen. We gotta be realistic...


No one says happy holidays - they say Wesolych Swiat and Milego Bozego Narodzenia - both carry a Christian Christmas connotation...

The fully saying being 'Wesolych Swiat, Bozego narodzenia I szczesliwego nowego roku

One thing is for sure - in Poland, although Christmas has turned into more and more of a consumer's holiday and receiving an orange is no longer considered an awesome gift, Poles still celebrate the old traditions of Wigilia, Pasterka, 12 dishes, etc. The West doesn't really have that - it's become far more PC to accommodate all the different religions whereas in Poland almost everyone is Christian, even if only nominally, so Christmas is still dominant.

@jon357
Oh, Yes! And they taste best at this time of the year. Just like oranges. I guess it's this mixture of smells, flavours, music, cold weather (The only time of the year when I don't mind it), music and people you love around.

@all
I hope your Christmas will be a happy one wherever you are.

They do taste better! I can take or leave pierogi most of the time (and generally prefer z mięsem), however at wigilia they do taste great and mustt be meat free!

I even like kutia, though many Poles and Ukrainians I've spent the holiday season with say they don't like it. They still eat it though ;-)

Happy Christmas to all!

I don't mind kutia, though we haven't had it for years.
For wigilia, we usually have barszcz grzybowy - just once a year but we do have 'regular' zupa grzybowa z lazankami or barszcz czerwony z uszkami on 25th or 26th. We also have fried carp once a year.

As for pierogi, they do taste better when made with forest mushrooms and loads of butter. And makowiec and sernik and opłatek ... Opłatek is probably the only thing that is not fattening :D

And then you see a lot of joggers sometime between Christmas and New Year's Eve ;)

A friend of mine (originally from the countryside in Świętokrzyskie) makes a delicious wigilia soup with buckwheat (kasza gryczana) dried mushrooms and żurek... he said where he's from they just call it 'barszcz'... is yours similar?

for me kutia is kind of disgusting and inedible I've had it twice and it was differently nasty each time....

Ours is indeed made with dried forest mushrooms and żurek/zakwas (plus loads of spices and cooked on veggie stock/wywar warzywny) but we have it with mashed potatoes served on the side.

My paternal grandmother made it and it became family tradition. Mum, who loves it too, had zupa grzybowa in her family home.
When I google it, it comes up as smaki Podlasia but Grandma came from Podkarpacie.

As for kutia, I like all bakalie and poppy seed so ..

Why would anyone, they understand the people that say Happy Holiday do not believe in Jesus Christ and since it is a holiday to celebrate His birth the people that say Happy Holiday should really not be celebrating anything.

Jesus is the Reason for the season but to them it is just for food and drink and some other made up B.S.
Each to his own.

The standard "Merry Christmas" in Poland is "Wesołych Świąt", literally "Happy Holidays" (sometimes people add in words like peaceful and happy and only much more rarely do they actually say the words Christmas in the wish). And Christmas Eve (Wigilia) is more important than Christmas Day in Poland.

Harry's playing word games as usual.

Quite. It seems some of the knee-jerk brigade don't know the literal meaning of the word "holiday"...

Nor the meaning of the word Christmas.

Evidently you don't...

I'm always amused by the ratio of people who get upset about people saying 'Happy Holiday' but don't themselves go to mass during Christmas.

Although the ratio of sober to impaired mass goers in Poland at midnight on 24 December is also rather amusing.

Again, I must live in a different country as I don't remember seeing 'impaired' people at Pasterka.

That's because you were paying attention to mass instead of gawking around to see who had been drinking to amuse yourself.

Nah, people wouldn't go to church drunk.
Come on, Poles binge drinking argument?

Same here, though one or two people watching from outside occasionally seem a little unsteady. Better to attend than stay at home...

Well, they might as well attend a regular mass on Christmas Day. Pasterka is the first mass of Christmas Day really.
As for drinking on Christmas Eve, not really postne. So if someone's religious enough to attend Pasterka, I guess they're religious enough not to get drunk at wigilia.

I never saw anyone who was not stone sober at Pasterka in all my years in Poland. Not in Chojnice, not in Skierniewice, not in Lowicz, not in Wrocław and not in Jelenia Góra. Nor have I seen anyone, of any generation, get drunk at Wigilia. A glass or two of wine was the max for the whole evening, and most didn't even drink that, being satisfied with kompot or tea.

my brother drinks on Wigilia - but he's an aloholic and drinks almost everyday - he even once went to Pasterka partially drunk - he doesn't bother to go to Pasterka anymore though

Help him. Easier said than done but still ...

Polish carols are lovely. Once many years ago, I was a guest at the annual Christmas bash at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York and came away deeply moved at how reverently Poles seem to take their national traditions.

That might explain my experience. I avoid alcoholics like the plague, and can't stand being around drunk people. Not that I have anything against (very) moderate drinking. I might have a good beer or glass of wine a couple of times a year myself.

Christmas festivities do include often a fair amount of imbibing, this is true. Maybe that's why we wish people a "merry" Christmas, as "merry" in British English means slightly tipsy owing to alcohol consumption. Colder countries tend to drink more anyway than in warmer climates:-)

On paper, they are amazing. Downright incredible, in fact. In practice, it's torture. Church choirs in Poland are usually pretty ghastly.

I've only experienced Polish choirs here in the New York Tri-State area and found the particpants in general darned attractive myself. Or were you referring to their choice of repertoire?