General information

Poles are seen as a nation of fun lovers who enjoy festivities, traditions and centuries-old customs. The most ancient rituals, especially those dating back to pagan times, have long lost their magical character, becoming a colourful vestige of the past and a form of amusement. Links with tradition are felt the strongest during the greatest religious feasts, such as Christmas, Easter, Corpus Christi processions and All Saints’ Day. Pilgrimages to holy sites are very popular; these include the Monastery of Jasna Góra in Częstochowa for Catholics; the tomb of Rabbi Elimelech in Lezajsk for Jews, the Grabarka Sanctuary for Orthodox Christians.

The two main national holidays are the anniversary of the restoration of independence in 1918, celebrated on 11 November, and the anniversary of the passing of Poland’s first Constitution on 3 May 1791. These are official holidays with ceremonies, marches, concerts and other festivities.
Other holidays, quite different in character, include Women’s Day (8 March; today much less popular than under Communism), Mother’s Day (26 May), Granny’s Day (21 January) and Children’s Day (1 June), all less public and celebrated first and foremost at home.

A well-established Polish tradition is the celebration of Andrzejki (St. Andrew’s Day) - the last festive day before Advent, with fortune-telling to check what the new year will bring. The best-known method is by pouring hot wax into cold water and "reading" its shapes.

Christmas is a very festive holiday in Poland. Many customs, ceremonies and beliefs centre around Christmas Eve, a special day in Polish homes. An important element contributing to its dignified atmosphere are the Christmas decorations, notably a beautifully adorned Christmas tree. Today it would be difficult to imagine Christmas without it, although it’s one of the newest traditions: the first trees appeared in Poland in the 19th century, mainly in cities, introduced by Germans and Protestants of German origin. Gradually the custom gained popularity all across Poland. Before that, Polish houses used to be decorated with green branches of fir, spruce or pine.
Another element of the traditional Christmas decorations were sheaves of wheat and rye, hay and straw. They were supposed to bring good crops and remind everyone of the poverty in which Jesus was born. The custom has survived in the form of a small bunch of hay put under the tablecloth. In some houses this is accompanied today by money, a fish scale or bone put into a wallet - all to ensure affluence in the new year. An extra set of plates and cutlery is laid on the table for an unexpected guest. Sometimes an empty plate is a reminder of those who have passed away.
Christmas Eve was believed to affect the entire new year. For this reason, it had to be spent in harmony and peace, with everyone showing the utmost kindness to one another. Today it is still devoted to long preparations for Christmas Eve dinner, all the work having to be done before dusk. Then the whole family sit down to dine together, in the most important event on that day.
Traditionally, Christmas Eve dinner begins when the first star has appears in the sky. First, there is a prayer, sometimes with a passage from scripture about Jesus’ birth being read out. Then the family wish one another all the best for the new year and, as a sign of reconciliation, love, friendship and peace, share opłatek Christmas wafers that symbolise holy bread. Orthodox Christians do the same before their Christmas Eve meal by sharing auspicious the next year will be. You at least have to taste everything. This custom derives from the ancient tradition of respect for the fruits of the earth. After dinner, Christmas carols are sung. Many people end the day by attending the Midnight Mass known as Pasterka (the Shepherds’ Mass).
A popular event during the period after Christmas is the jasełka, a Nativity play staged by amateurs. In the country, you can still see carollers who go from house to house with a star or Nativity crib. Traditionally, they expect to be tipped for the visit; once the payment was in Christmas delicacies, but today these have been largely replaced by small change. The carollers are often dressed up and improvise scenes that loosely draw upon biblical motifs. Typically, the characters are King Herod, Angel, Devil, Death, sometimes Gypsy and a bear or goat.

The New Year’s Day and its eve, known in Poland as Sylwester (St. Silvester’s Day), begins the carnival - a period of balls and parties. One traditional form of having fun was kulig (sleigh rides), for centuries favoured by the Polish gentry and still extremely popular. A everlasting rhythm of life. It expressed their joy at the coming of spring, which meant a rebirth of nature, promising crops and abundance, the marzanna was a representation of winter, a straw female effigy, dressed in white and adorned with coral beads and ribbons. In Silesia, she was clad in a beautiful wedding dress with a wreath on her head. Villagers carried the marzanna from house to house, then stripped her and scattered the clothes over the fields. Eventually she was drowned in a river, pond, lake or simply in a big puddle. Sometimes before throwing her into the water the effigy was set on fire. As the marzanna was carried out of the village one way, on the opposite side the villagers carried in the maik - green branches adorned with ribbons, coral beads and flowers. Over centuries this ceremony evolved into a form of amusement. Today drowning the marzanna is mainly done by children on 21 March, which is the first day of spring and an unofficial truants’ day.

The most colourful religious feast before Easter is Palm Sunday, celebrated in churches across the country to commemorate Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The main attribute associated with that day are the palms. Despite the name, they hardly resemble the real palm branches with which Jesus was greeted in the Holy City. Typically, they are bouquets of common box, dried flowers and willow twigs. Some regions are noted for particularly impressive palms, several metres high and decorated with coloured ribbons, dyed grasses, dried or artificial flowers. In the past it was believed that a palm blessed at a mass has special properties; for example, it can prevent disease. After the mass, people would hit one another with their palms, exchanging wishes of health, wealth and bumper crops.
On Holy Saturday people bring baskets of their Easter fare to church for a special blessing for all the different Easter foods. This typically Polish tradition dates back to the 14th century. Originally, only a baked lamb made of bread was blessed, but today the basket should contain at least seven kinds of food, each with its own symbolism. Bread, ensuring good fortune, is in Christianity first and foremost a symbol of Christ’s body. Eggs stands for re-birth, life’s victory over death. Salt is a life-giving mineral, once believed to keep away all evil. Smoked meat ensures health, fertility and abundance. Cheese represents friendship between man and nature. Horseradish is a symbol of strength and physical fitness. Cake (usually an Easter pound cake, round wheat cake and mazurek) was the last item to appear in the Easter basket and it symbolises skills and perfection. Tradition has it that the cake should be home-made. Nowadays some people also have chocolate and tropical fruits in their Easter baskets. This custom developed during the Communist period, when chocolate and imported fruit were rarities.
Easter eggs
Another Easter custom is the tradition of decorating eggs. The oldest Polish Easter egg comes from the 10th century and was found at an excavation site in Ostrów. Interestingly, it was made in a technique very much like those used today.
Decorating Easter eggs has become an element of folk culture, with distinct regional differences. Traditionally, before they are dyed the eggs are painted over (using a funnel-like tool) with a pattern in molten wax, which, when dry, will not adsorb the dye and is later scraped away to leave a traced decoration on the painted egg. In some regions, white bulrush cores and coloured wool or miniature paper cut-outs are glued to the egg shell. A Pomeranian variety is an egg in one colour only, obtained by using natural dyes from leaves, tree bark, onion scales, cones, mallow flowers, camomile, reed, nut shells, nettle leaves, larch needles and many other plants. In Silesia, dyed eggs are decorated with elaborate patterns scraped off the dyed shell with a sharp stylus.
Decorating eggs was once women’s handicraft. Dyed or painted eggs were first presented to family members and godchildren, and then, during the week following Easter, to friends.

Dieting
Most Polish women cook dinner at home, and their husbands praise them highly for it, believing that no restaurant can equal home cooking. Statistics show that Polish women are constantly on diets, so before serving the food they will willingly discuss the food and their diets. It is important to politely listen, agree and then calmly wait for their home-made specialities. Slimming à la polonaise does not in fact mean cutting back on meals. Breakfasts are very solid; the midday meal is usually eaten after returning from work, around or after 3 p.m, is big, too; only supper is a little more modest. That is providing no guests have been invited. Then the principle of "we’ll do anything to entertain you" applies.

The groaning table
If in France one cannot count all the types of cheese, in Poland the same applies to sausages and cold cuts . Recently barbecues have become highly fashionable with the meat-eating Poles. Barbecue grills may be set up just about anywhere - at someone’s home in the country, in the garden, on the front lawn, and even on the balcony. Special occasions, such as the visit of a guest from abroad, however, demand the preparation of more complicated and rarer dishes. To stay in Poland and not try bigos made of cabbage is like being in Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower. Bigos was once a special hunters’ dish, served at the end of a long day. Today it is available to all.
Traditionalists who do not eat anything except the specialities of their own cuisine need have no worries about visiting Poland.. It is easy to find restaurants serving Japanese sushi, Mexican tacos, American steaks or Greek salads. The one exception is sea food, of which most Poles are not overly fond. On a visit to the mountains you simply must try oscypek - ewe’s-milk cheese. It is not found in any other place in the world and is in the shape of a roll with pointed ends. Because the mountain people themselves make it, apart from its quality, care is also taken with its aesthetics - they are imprinted with attractive designs. Oscypek is not only a delicacy, but also a wonderful souvenir of a trip to Poland.

To the guests’ health
The claim that as a nation the Poles can’t put their drinking glasses down is wrong. Alcohol consumption is systematically falling and beer is enjoying greater popularity these days than vodka. Today you need no longer worry that you’ll be obliged to drink straight vodka. At parties wine and cocktails are the in thing. When visiting acquaintances you can safely ask for some juice or coke to dilute your vodka. No-one will bat an eye. The same’s true of a polite no to alcohol altogether. However if you decides on a tipple, it is worthwhile to prepare for toasts. The first toast is usually raised by the host "to the guests’ health." It is easy to guess that the guests will reciprocate by drinking to the health of the hosts. Afterwards you can let your imagination run wild and raise a toast to anything you fancy - to the next meeting, to a successful return journey home and above all to the health of the beautiful ladies.
Surprisingly, the Polish national drinksare not alcoholic, but - coffee and tea. Guests are ambushed with the question which of these beverages they would prefer more or less immediately after they cross the threshold of a Polish home. Apart from drip-machine coffee, many traditionalists maintain the custom of drinking so-called "Turkish" coffee, that is ground coffee with boiling water poured on. Tea is served with sugar and lemon, very often in a glass. A request for milk with your tea may be met with puzzlement.

Guest in the home, God in the home
When sitting down to the dinner table it is always a good idea to congratulate the host on the wonderful reception. Poles are convinced that they are an exceptionally hospitable nation and like to be reassured of this. And not without reason. In the past their forefathers often said: "A guest in the home, God in the home," which meant that a guest had to be offered all the best things available. When the best was not forthcoming they would resort to the following expression: "Get into debt, but do it in style." In fact it sometimes happened that the cost of a reception or party would be financed by a loan which then took years to repay. The desire to please guests is still prevalent in Poland today. Not so long ago the favourite topic of conversation at a fully laden table were stories about the "stinginess" of foreigners who offered their guests only a cup of coffee and some pretzels. Today, foreign contacts are so widespread that different customs haveceased to be shocking or amusing, and sometimes may even be copied. However, even at a modestly stocked table the discussions are as intense as they were as in bygone times.

Secular holidays
January 1st - New Year’s Day
May 1st - May Day (Labour Day)
May 3rd - Constitution Day (a national holiday celebrating the May 3rd 1791 Constitution)
November 11th - Independence Day (a national holiday celebrating the restoration of independence in 1918).