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Christmas in Poland

Christmas holiday decorations in the streets of Warsaw, Polish, on 18th December 2015. Christmas Eve is a mere six days away, and for many across Poland, the weeks before Christmas are filled with baking, cooking, and decorating their home for “Wigilia”, the traditional Christmas Eve vigil supper that is celebrated in the country. This traditional feast includes 12 meatless courses. Families across Poland will sit down to Wigilia on the 24th of December as soon as they see the first star appear in the night sky, commemorating the star of Bethlehem, which led to three wise men to Christ. The traditional meal has 12 courses to commemorate mate the 12 apostles of Christ. Families will often set an extra place at the dinner table, in case a stranger may appear in the winter night, needing food and shelter, which is often thought to be a symbolic gesture alluding to Nativity Store and Mary and Joseph’s search for an inn in Bethlehem. After Christmas dinner children often open presents and devout families attend Midnight mass, also known as the “Pasterka”. Children in villages will often try to stay up late into the night, hoping to hear animals talk in human voices, another Polish Christmas folk legend. (Photo by Muhesen Amren/NurPhoto)

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