Here it is, Christmas 2006. How do I feel? Well, I feel many different ways.
It’s raining so no white Christmas but I don’t really care. The family is here and all will attend our traditional Polish Wigilia celebration which is a Christmas Eve gathering we have been doing like forever – I really care about that.
Part of the tradition is a ceremony called OPLATEK. Everyone takes a piece of special wafer (oplatek) and exchanges pieces of this wafer with everyone in the family. During the exchange you wish each other a great new year. Traditionally at this ceremony, all hard feelings are put to rest between family members; start fresh and happy, all is forgiven. Anyway, that is the way it is suppose to happen.
We have a lot of children in the family and keep adding new ones each year; we celebrate that and rejoice at the growing of the family. This year my first grandson BEN will be celebrating his first Christmas.
We also have the elders. My father-in-law is 86 and my mother is 84 – wow, how many Christmases have they celebrated and how many more will they celebrate. That does enter my thoughts more and more these days. In my usual speech before dinner I mention the family members that have departed and my mother says a prayer in Polish for them, for us and in thanks for the dinner we are about to enjoy.
My mother is probably the last member of the family that adds some religious content to our holiday celebrations and of course the Polish language.
We used to be 100% Polish and then through marriage we have become somewhat international. My niece married a Frenchman and my daughter a Scotsman. We have had both families over and the French have attended a few Wigilia celebrations – it was nice to have them.
The dinner is different because no meat is served. We have a variety of fish dishes (pickled herring being my favorite). Everyone brings a dish of some sort and by tradition kielbasa and ham are available after midnight.
The midnight Catholic Mass tradition has gone and caroling is not really done. When my father was alive, everyone gathered around the piano and sang Polish carols, he of course led the singing.
Children open a few presents after dinner and then play with them. The grownups spend time talking about their lives with relatives that they do not see as often as one would like – we are all sooooooooooo busy.
So if I was to say what is Christmas to me, I would have to say FAMILY above all else and our hope is that our children will carry on the WIGILIA tradition long after we are no longer here.
It’s raining so no white Christmas but I don’t really care. The family is here and all will attend our traditional Polish Wigilia celebration which is a Christmas Eve gathering we have been doing like forever – I really care about that.
Part of the tradition is a ceremony called OPLATEK. Everyone takes a piece of special wafer (oplatek) and exchanges pieces of this wafer with everyone in the family. During the exchange you wish each other a great new year. Traditionally at this ceremony, all hard feelings are put to rest between family members; start fresh and happy, all is forgiven. Anyway, that is the way it is suppose to happen.
We have a lot of children in the family and keep adding new ones each year; we celebrate that and rejoice at the growing of the family. This year my first grandson BEN will be celebrating his first Christmas.
We also have the elders. My father-in-law is 86 and my mother is 84 – wow, how many Christmases have they celebrated and how many more will they celebrate. That does enter my thoughts more and more these days. In my usual speech before dinner I mention the family members that have departed and my mother says a prayer in Polish for them, for us and in thanks for the dinner we are about to enjoy.
My mother is probably the last member of the family that adds some religious content to our holiday celebrations and of course the Polish language.
We used to be 100% Polish and then through marriage we have become somewhat international. My niece married a Frenchman and my daughter a Scotsman. We have had both families over and the French have attended a few Wigilia celebrations – it was nice to have them.
The dinner is different because no meat is served. We have a variety of fish dishes (pickled herring being my favorite). Everyone brings a dish of some sort and by tradition kielbasa and ham are available after midnight.
The midnight Catholic Mass tradition has gone and caroling is not really done. When my father was alive, everyone gathered around the piano and sang Polish carols, he of course led the singing.
Children open a few presents after dinner and then play with them. The grownups spend time talking about their lives with relatives that they do not see as often as one would like – we are all sooooooooooo busy.
So if I was to say what is Christmas to me, I would have to say FAMILY above all else and our hope is that our children will carry on the WIGILIA tradition long after we are no longer here.
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