Christmas
Winter in Poland can be miserable, but Christmas proves to be anything but. The culmination of the Grinch period is Christmas Eve, and as in most countries is celebrated by eating. The feast (Wigilia) officially starts when the first star in the sky appears, and though alcohol should not be served, most modern households flout this law. Before dinner can begin the family shares the Christmas wafer; each person breaks off a piece before sharing it with the others while simultaneously making a blessing. It’s a tradition cherished by many Poles and one that intrusive foreigners should not mock. So, what to expect once the dinner trolley gets wheeled out. Supper consists of 12 courses – one for each apostle – with the food reflecting various agricultural elements; fields, forests, water etc so that each bears in the coming year. It’s for this reason you’re expected to try a bit of everything. Furthermore, the more eat, the more prosperous you will be. The dinner is meant to be meatless, though the church have lifted the age old ban on this. The main course is usually carp. Traditionally it comes served ‘the Polish way’, which means in gray sauce along with almonds and raison. The beastly fish is often kept swimming in the bathtub in the run-up to Wigilia and it’s down to the head of the family to whack it with a hammer and then gut it, though nowadays enterprising carp salesmen enjoy a roaring trade in slaughtering fish on behalf of those not man enough for the task. Other dishes you can expect to make an appearance at some stage include
Don’t whatever you do drop a spoon during supper, otherwise you can expect to be dead within a year. Other superstitions include throwing a portion of kutja (a dessert made of poppy seeds, honey and wheat) at the ceiling; if it sticks then wedding bells are imminent. Symbolism is important and some hay will be placed under the white tablecloth to remind of Christ’s manger, while an empty seat will be set aside just in case a stranger comes knocking – if you’re on your own this Christmas, put Polish hospitality to the test and knock on a random door, we’d love to know the result. After the feeding it’s time to hand out the presents before heading off for church for midnight mass (pasterka), and it’s when the clock strikes twelve that you’ll apparently find animals speaking in human voice. While in the west Christmas Eve tends to be an excuse to head down the pub and try your luck with the barmaid the event has more serious connotations in Poland. The majority of natives spend Christmas Eve with their families, and you’ll find most shops and restaurants closing down by late afternoon.

Easter
Palm Sunday (01/04/2012). To do so would be tempting a poor harvest, and anyone caught breaking this unofficial law would find themselves being thrown into the nearest pond. The Poles have lightened up since those days, but this is still a time marked by tradition and trips to the nearest church.
As a deeply Catholic country, Poland takes its Easter celebrations seriously; this is no place for the Easter Bunny. Throughout the period, the visiting foreigner can expect bars and restaurants to be either empty or closed.
Traditionally Good Friday (Wielki Post or Great Fast in Polish) is a day of abstinence and Catholics visit church to attend stations of the cross – a series of prayers following Jesus Christ’s route to his crucifixion.
On Easter Saturday (07/04/2012) Poles, typically children, will take brightly decorated baskets of food to church to have them blessed. In these baskets will typically be a piece of sausage, bread, egg, mazurek cake (a traditional Easter cake), some salt, some horseradish and a symbolic ram made from dough In addition ‘pisanki’ are included which are painted boiled eggs which have been prepared in the lead-up to Easter by the whole family. Each of these components of the basket has a symbolic meaning. The eggs and meat symbolize new life, fertility and health, the salt protects against bad spirits and helps you follow the right path, the bread symbolizes the body of Christ and by this future prosperity in terms of always having food to feed yourself, the horseradish represents strength and physical health and the cake represents skills and talents needed for the coming year.
Come Easter Sunday (08/04/2012), families will gather together to celebrate with an Easter breakfast of zurek (Polish rye soup), bread, eggs, sausage, horseradish and poppy seed cakes. Each person places a small piece of the blessed food on their plate before exchanging wishes with other members of the family. The symbolic dough ram is placed on the table to symbolize the resurrection of Christ. The Sunday traditionally sees an early morning mass with procession which is called Rezurekcja (Resurrection) which is then followed by Easter breakfast.
Now a warning. Things take a more lighthearted twist on Easter Monday (09/04/2012). Known as Śmingus Dyngus the day is dominated by public water fights and everyone is given carte blanche to drench anyone they see with water. You, as a foreigner, are not exempt from this practice, so move fast if you see someone armed with a water pistol or bucket and a grin. Although it’s never pleasant to have a jug of water thrown over your head, this is an improvement from the past when young people would be beaten with sticks from Palm Sunday trees - which apparently brought luck and strength for the year ahead.

May Days
May 1 and May 3 are public holidays and seeing that this year they fall on Thursday and Saturday you can expect most Poles to award themselves a long weekend.  The May 1 holiday during communist rule saw parades, concerts and other public gatherings to celebrate the glories and triumphs of the socialist system. Post 1989 the Polish government voted to keep this day a public holiday, only without any red flag nonsense. May 3 is far more important. It was on this day in 1791 that the Polish Sejm (parliament) signed what was to become Europe’s first national constitution (and the second in the world). Introducing political equality between the bourgeoisie and the nobility, it marked an end to serfdom by placing the peasant class under the protection of the government. This happened under the rule of Poland’s last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski with him describing the act as ‘founded principally on those of England and the United States, but avoiding the faults and errors of both’. These sweeping social reforms however sparked suspicion in Poland’s neighbours and on May 18, 1792, Russian troops entered Poland. By 1795 the country was carved up once more by the powers of Russia, Prussia and Austria. Originally a public holiday, May 3 was outlawed under the ensuing partitions and again by the occupying Nazis, and then by the communists. It was only restored as a public holiday in 1990 following the fall of communism. If you are in Warsaw that weekend you can expect a military parade on (B-2/3) Pl. Piłsudskiego attended by the President which sees speeches, medals and gun salvos. Most shops and many bars and restaurants will also be closed for both days. 

All Saints’ Day
November 1 marks All Saints’ Day; one of Poland’s most important public holidays – only transport and emergency service employees are expected to work, so do not be surprised to find your favourite bar, restaurant or shop bolted shut for the day. Whole families descend on graveyards and memorials to lay wreaths and candles for deceased family members and the prayers said at the gravestone are said to help the souls of the dead. As night falls cemeteries acquire an eerie red glow from the thousands of flickering candles; a stirring and unforgettable sight.

Independence Day
Another date for the diary is November 11 which celebrates Poland’s Independence Day in 1918, a day when Poland finally achieved independence having been partitioned by Austria, Germany and Russia for the previous 125 years. It was on this day Marshall Józef Piłsudski assumed control of the newly independent Poland, having arrived back to Poland the night before having been incarcerated the previous years in Magdeburg Prison.