Then it continues with sharing the wafer combined with making wishes (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:178). The ceremony starts with a mutual pray or reading the relevant fragment of the Bible. The latter is being impatiently watched for by children ( Ibid.:178). Polish people sit down to the Christmas Eve supper at dusk, when the first star appears (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:178). In Polish Christmas, both these themes, pagan and Christian, have intertwined into a colourful and poetic whole ( Ibid.:178). Particularly important is the Christmas Eve supper, probably the only festive meal in Polish cuisine, in which there are clearly preserved the traces of rituals from the times before the introduction of Christianity in Poland (966 AD) ( Ibid.:178). This Christian holiday, which is intimate, family, and usually spent with the dearest people, however, goes back to the traditions of pagan-Slavic times ( Ibid.:178). The Free Encyclopedia.Ĭhristmas is, apart from Easter (see: Traces of Slavic Pagan Rites in the Polish Easter Tradition), the most celebrating feast in Poland (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:178). Image source: “Wigilia Bożego Narodzenia” (2020). “The first star” (oil painting), circa 1913.
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