Polish customs and traditions

As most of you hopefully know Poland is in Europe and has been for the last years been marketing itself as a western country, after being a part of Soviet Union. So I thought they just had similar customs as most other European countries, but no… Poland has some really fun and interesting traditions that I could never have thought of before coming here. Now I will list out some of my favorite days that they celebrate.

First, one of the greatest customs in the entire world. Okay are you ready! Of course, I’m talking about “Tłusty Czwartek”. It’s not a complicated one, you are just supposed to eat pączki which is a doughnut! I was very fortunate to be apart of this day last February. The week before my aunt told me about this upcoming event while she was making some doughnuts. And I simply couldn’t believe it, I went after and googled it and found out that understood her right. On the day I had some in breakfast and took one for lunch in school, then when I was in school they gave us another one! After school I headed down town where my friends from Lublin were going to meet me. Before I told them about this really great place where you could get these, they went there and joined the line that had appeared. But this was no normal line… I arrived one and half hour later and they were still there waiting! Then finally when we got the pączki there was only one kind we could buy. But it tasted so good.

“Odwiedzanie grobów” this is a holiday so no school or work. On the day everyone goes to the cemetery and pay respects to past ones. After we went to my grandmother and we ate lunch. In Poland when you go to your grandmother you have to go on an empty stomach! The amount of food she will prepare is not normal. I went there around 12:00 and you get a three-dish lunch. Then you get a tea and maybe hour brake and again three-dish dinner!

 

Most all polish people are catholic and very religious. So most all people go to church every Sunday and celebrate the religious customs, Christmas and Easter and etcetera. These days are quite similar to what I had come to know, but with some exceptions. Over Easter they go almost all days to church but on the final day is my favorite custom in Poland.

On “Śmigus Dyngus” (Easter Monday) you do not want to wake up last, because if you do it won’t be pleasant. The tradition is to wake up the entire family with water! So the first thing you do when you wake up is to have a fantastic water fight. It doesn’t matter if you will make everything inside the house wet (as long as you clean up). Then you go to your grandmother and eat a lot… When I did some research I found so many more, from burning a witch to having two bachelors parties before weeding. This is something that is deeply rooted in the culture of Poland.

 

Júlíus Waage  z Islandii (program roczny na Polsce 2017/18)