Sharing of Opłatek and Uno

For Poles, Wigilia (Christmas Eve) is the most important Christmas celebration and for me, it was the most special of the three days of Christmas events.

My Wigilia celebration began at school on December 21st, when Gerardo (the other Rotary student in Kielce) and I took part in the school Christmas program. There was a small play, carols and a Polish poem read by Gerardo and I. On that Tuesday the Wigilia program was performed for the staff and the Bishop of Kielce, with a light potluck meal afterwards. It was at this event that I first experienced the sharing of opłatek.

Opłatek is a thin wafer upon which a picture of the nativity scene, the star of Bethleham or Mary and Jesus is embossed on. The wafer is almost identical to a Communion wafer and is a very important part of celebrating Wigilia here in Poland.

After each person has received an opłatek the sharing begins. Friends, family members, classmates and teachers greet each other, break off a small piece of each other's opłatek and exchange wishes, for example - I wish you health, happiness, good grades, joy, etc... in the year to come. For many, the wishes are extremely personal and heartfelt. At my school's Wigilia program the sharing of opłatek took about half an hour to complete, during which I saw both tears and laughter.

I shared opłatek several more times the next few days, with my classmates during our Christmas party, with the Kielce Rotary Club during their Christmas meeting and finally with my host family on Christmas Eve. Each sharing will be something I remember forever. The power of opłatek is in its ability to bring people together, to exchange hopes and wishes, to start the year out fresh.



Opłatek is only one of the many Polish Wigilia traditions I experienced in the past week. While opłatek is the most meaningful, having carp swimming around in your basement sink is perhaps the most unique. On Wigilia Poles traditionally serve twelve different, non-meat, dishes one of which is always carp. I was slightly suspicous of eating carp, but I found that it's quite tasty. Apparently, the trick for good-tasting carp is letting it swim around in clean fresh water for a few days before eating it, thus the fish swimming around in the basement. Other dishes served at Wigilia were mushroom perogi, śledż (pickled herring), a brown mushroom soup, Polish salad, cooked cabbage, salmon and soda bread (yes, soda bread has now made its way to Poland!)

After a delightful dinner and singing both Polish and English Christmas carols, the eleven of us (My host family, grandparents, Aunt, Uncle, two cousins and their Grandmother) headed to the choinka (Christmas tree, which, by the way, is set-up only on Christmas Eve morning!) to open gifts. Gifts are only opened on Wigilia, as Mikołaj (Santa) has already come on Decemeber 6th. It was a lot of fun to see everyone open gifts, especially my seven year-old cousin, who, after receiving Uno from me has become obsessed with the game.

After the chaos of opening gifts had calmed, my host family and I went to celebrate Wigilia with the other side of the family, where the same rituals were repeated. It amazed me to think that I knew exactly what ever other Pole was doing on Christmas Eve, as Wigilia is an extremely traditional event, unlike the U.S. where Christmas is celebrated in thousands of ways! That night we got home very late and I quickly fell asleep, my Polish Wigilia coming to an end.

The next few days passed quickly, full of church, family, cake and hundreds of games of Uno. And that was my Polish Christmas, a wonderful time full of days that I'll never forget and that I'll be forever thankful for.


Kielce Bishop's Palace



These are some of my favorite kolędy polskie (Polish Christmas Carols) - enjoy!

- Sorry, you have to copy and paste the links -



Wśród Nocnej Ciszy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tur9Vtn_QYE


Bóg się rodzi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX5xO4BPRIo