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Post by Beata on Dec 16, 2003 9:06:42 GMT -5
Now, I have some questions concerning Christmas. First of all, how do Americans spend Christmas Eve??? In Poland families gather at the Christmas table and wait for the first star to appear in the sky and start a very special meal that is said to consist of 12 dishes. After this special supper some of them go to the midnight mass. On Christmas day they go to churches, have Christmas dinner and next visit their families. On the 26th they also visit their relatives or spend the time just at home resting. Waiting for your reply!!!!
Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!
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Post by Beata on Dec 16, 2003 9:09:04 GMT -5
I do not know why the sad face appeared in my post. It had to be 3 question marks but there apeared this. Sorry...
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Post by KenWalsh on Dec 16, 2003 17:03:31 GMT -5
Christmas is a tough holiday to describe since everyone incorporates the traditions of their ancestors. I may post more than one time on this issue. As you have already observed, Americans spend a lot of time at celebrations. The Christmas season is no exception and runs through Advent up until Christmas Day. We generally begin celebrating the week after our Thanksgiving feast.
We generally regard December as the holiday season when many celebrations are non-denominational so that everyone's religious beliefs can be respected. Hanukkah, the winter Solstice, and Kwanzaa are also celebrated in December.
Before Christmas Eve, neighborhoods, offices, clubs, and religious groups organize holiday dinners and parties. Cards, small gifts, or even gag gifts are exchanged on these occasions.
Performances of Handel's Messiah, the Nutcracker Suite, and thingyens' A Christmas Carol abound in our area (Andrzej's filters prevent this British author's name from appearing correctly). There are other choral and hand bell works performed in churches with Christmas themes. Unfortunately we now rarely hear Christmas carollers strolling the streets and singing the songs.
Americans also often mail Christmas cards before the holiday. Some cards have religious themes, but I tend to buy more secular comical cards. These cards often contain a litany of the sender's activities during the last year. Therefore, the letters in the Christmas cards may be used to catch up with someone who has moved away from your area.
Americans also bring real or artificial evergreen trees into their homes to decorate. Many families spend long hours buying the right tree, hauling it into their homes, standing it straight, decorating it with small lights, and then hanging ornaments, tinsel, and popcorn garlands upon it. Some families wait until Christmas Eve to perform this ritual.
The light decorations are not always confined to the house interiors. Many people decorate the outside of their homes and include hundreds of small Christmas lights. At night one can read a book when standing anywhere in their yards.
I'll later post my family Christmas Eve/Day traditions, which were generated by my Polish ancestors.
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Post by KenWalsh on Dec 16, 2003 19:19:24 GMT -5
Over the years my family has altered some Polish traditions to keep them alive in America. My family begins Christmas Eve at 6 AM when male relatives arrive at my folks’ house. This tradition of men being the first into the house has been the source of many protests from women over the years, but the tradition lives on. We enjoy breakfast and then each share a shot of whiskey with my mother. With designated drivers (drivers who abstain from drink), the men then visit houses and share whiskey shots at each location. We even stop at the cemetery to share drinks with those who have passed away.
In the afternoon eighty family members gather in a large hall for our Wigilia celebration (the proper pronunciation of Wigilia has been lost in my family). We remember our grandparents, share oplatka before an organized, seated buffet and dinner, have games for the children (musical chairs and a piñata), sing Christmas carols, and are visited by Santa Claus who passes out one gift to each child. Family members may leave for other parties or head straight to Mass at 8 PM, 10 PM, or midnight.
Christmas Day begins with a large breakfast featuring kielbasa and then a gift exchange. Then families visit one another all day long to spend time together and play games. December 26 is the day when people return unwanted gifts to stores for refunds and take advantage of post-Christmas sales.
Wesolych Swiat!
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Post by KenWalsh on Dec 17, 2003 23:16:21 GMT -5
I guess I was wrong in assuming that few Americans carol. See the article below:
The early winter night has already settled over the city. Most people are snug in their homes, awaiting Christmas Eve. But for a special group, it is time to take part in an increasingly vibrant tradition. The day is December 23, the hour is 7:00 p.m., and the place is Baltimore's Fells Point. From local neighborhoods, the suburbs, Washington, D.C., and surrounding districts, Polish Americans gather to wish one another "Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia" ("Happy holidays at the birth of Jesus") and remember their forebears' homeland. Every year since the 1970s, a hardy contingent of carolers, sometimes numbering as many as five hundred in all, has assembled in front of the Polish Cultural Center on South Broadway in East Baltimore. They come to sing hymns in praise of the birth of Christ, but they also continue a caroling tradition about which many have heard their parents and grandparents speak when remembering Poland. Polish traditions are strongly kept in this part of Baltimore. There has been a Polish community here for over 130 years, and Polish roots in this section of the city go even further. Count Casimir Pulaski, considered the father of the U.S. cavalry, trained his highly mobile force of Americans, French, Poles, Irish, and Hessians in this area in 1778. By the early 1900s several thousand Poles were living here. Today, at least ten thousand in the Baltimore-Washington area claim some Polish ancestry. The weather has a great deal to do with the carolers' itinerary. One or more horse-drawn carriages are hired if the temperature is above 32 degrees. A city ordinance stipulates that horses may not be hired out if the temperature is below freezing. The carriages will make the rounds from the Inner Harbor, through Little Italy, and on to Fells Point. One winter the weather was so cold that the carolers finally brought the horse and wagon into the cultural center hall! When the caroling tradition began, the conveyance was a common fruit and vegetable wagon. It was driven by one of the "Baltimore Arabers," a group of entrepreneurial black Americans who earned a living selling produce from their wagons on the streets of Baltimore for many years. When the group makes its rounds, the carolers walk and sing Christmas hymns and secular holiday songs in English. When they stop, either to serenade passersby or in front of local churches and a home for the elderly, they break out their songbooks and join in the Polish hymns.
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Post by Jennifer on Jan 14, 2004 18:45:26 GMT -5
Just to add to when Ken posted, one of my family's traditions has been to attend Mass on Christmas Eve. It tends to be a very long service than the usual one, including a sort of Christmas pageant involving the children of the parish. As far as presents are concerned, we usually open one gift on Christmas eve, then on Christmas morning open the remaining presents. A large family meal is celebrated sometime in the afternoon.
Also, I'd like to point out that Christmas day is one of the few holidays in the U.S. when almost all the stores are closed for the entire day. This happens so rarely in the U.S. I thought it was worth pointing out.
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