Hello dear friends, as I promised, I will tell you something about my Christmas. Surprisingly, it turned out that I didn't take as many photos as I thought I did, but we'll manage :) I will try to post the most interesting ones and to write about them as short and simple as possible. I hope you will learn something new about Poland!
First, some of you may not know, here in Poland, we start celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24th - we have a special, elegant and NO-MEAT meal, the only meat we eat then is fish - and most of the people eat KARP ('carp' in English):
In my house, we also eat a meal that is called RYBA PO GRECKU ('fish in a Greek style', I have no idea why it is called like that!) which consists of fish and lots of boiled vegetables cut into tiny pieces or stripes - we usually use DORSZ ('cod') if I remember well:
and many more, but it always has to be WITHOUT MEAT. For The Christmas Day and the Second Day of Christmas (we celebrate the 24th, 25th and 26th), we eat meat. In total, we have also:
- bigos - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigos
- barszcz czerwony (z uszkami lub krokietami) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht#Polish_variants
- some families have kutia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutia - but I never had it on my Christmas table
- various roasted meats, like steaks, tenderloins (my fav is the one stuffed with plums!), pâté and many more
- and maaaaany other additional things, like prepared horseradish with beetroots or mayonnaise...
I tell you, all these things are SO delicious that once you try it, you wanna stay here in Poland forever and just eat it :)
But hey, what is Christmas without the Christmas tree?
Our main tree looked like this:
You can also see our table. We always put an additional plate for 'an unexpected guest' - it's an old Polish custom, that on Christmas Day, if anyone suddenly knocked on your door and ask for a meal, you'd be prepared to host him.
The Christmas tree in MY room is just... OH MY:
yeah... :)
I didn't take any photos of my family because I didn't want to make them feel uncomfortable or something. I also didn't take any photos of my gifts, except this one, from my friend:
An orange - clove scent machine! :D
The last thing I wanted to tell you about is the tradition of breaking off and exchanging the Christmas wafer with family before sitting to eat the Christmas Eve Meal. We exchange it with blessings and good words - you can read about this custom here --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_wafer#Polish_tradition --- and, you have some additional info on how we celebrate the Christmas Eve.
I hope you liked this tiny info, sorry I posted only few photos...
If you are interested in any of those things, ask in the comment section, and I will be glad to answer!
Take care!
PS. VERY SOON we'll have another artist answering the Get on the Carousel questionnaire, so stay tuned!
