CHRISTMAS IN TRADITIONAL POLISH STYLE

POLISH CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION 

Christmas is a time everyone always looks forward to and anticipates. And Christmas celebrated in „Polish style“ is shrouded in myth and legend among foreigners. There are stories of tables groaning with food, multi-generational family reunions and beautiful Polish Christmas carols sung by whole families. It is not surprising, since Polish Christmas celebration traditions are not only rich, but also simply beautiful.

SPARE PLATE ON POLISH TABLE

In Poland the celebration begins with the Christmas Eve supper (kolacja wigilijna). It’s a time of joyful anticipation. Everything must be very well prepared and, as the Polish nicely put it, „zapięte na ostatni guzik“ (buttoned up).
First, we decorate the Christmas tree, then we lay the table. We often put a bundle of hay under the white tablecoth, which is a reminder of a manger where Jesus was born. There is always one place-setting more than there are guests who will be sitting at the table. The spare plate is meant for a „weary wanderer“, a traveller who might knock on the door on that night. The Polish tradition refers to the search for a place to spend the night by Mary and Joseph and says that on the Christmas Eve night everyone should let in an unexpected guest if one stands at their door.

                                                    What do you call a Christmas tree in Polish?

                                                         Other riddles refering to the Polish language you can find here

TWELVE DISHES FOR THE CHIRSTMAS EVE SUPPER

Nowadays, you can find twelve dishes (the number refers to twelve apostles and twelve months), but it wasn’t always like that. In the old days nine dishes were served at mansions of nobility and eleven at mansions of magnates. The odd number was believed to bring prosperity and abundance to the household in the upcoming year. The dishes served on Christmas Eve vary from region to region, however, they should always contain all the fruits of the earth, coming from the fields, woods, gardens and water. Therefore, traditional dishes are made with poppy seeds, grains of cereals, cabbage, mushrooms, honey, fruit and fish. Poppy seeds and cereals would provide wealth and offspring, fish would provide health, cabbage would give people strengh and vitality, mushrooms – prosperity and good fortune, honey – well-being and long life, and fruit – love and harmony. If you have a lesson on Christmas in your Polish class, you’ll find out that there’s no Christmas without barszcz z uszkami (beetroot soup with ravioli), pierogi z kapustą i grzybami (dumplings filled with cabbage and cooked dried mushrooms), śledź (herring), karp (carp), or kompot z suszonych owoców (dried fruit compote). There must be makowiec (poppy seed cake), piernik (gingerbread), babka drożdżowa (yeast cake) and kutia (sweet grain pudding).
The Christmas Eve supper doesn’t begin until the appearance of the first star in the sky. Before we sit at the table and start feasting we share opłatek (wafer) and wish each other good fortune and happiness, since Christmas is a time of forgiving and reconciling.

WHO BRINGS POLISH CHILDREN GIFTS?

After the supper many Poles sing Christmas carols. That is also a moment when Święty Mikołaj (Saint Nicolas), Gwiazdor (in Wielkopolska, Kujawy, Kaszuby and Western Pomerania), Aniołek (in Małopolska), or Dzieciątko Jezus (Child Jesus, as they call him in Upper Silesia) bring gifts.
At midnight whole families attend Pasterka, the Midnight Mass at the local church, which takes its name after pasterze (shepherds), who were the first ones to welcome the newly born Jesus. That is the night when everyone enjoys the beginning of Christmas.

                      You’ll learn in our courses of Polish for foreigners how to wish someone a Merry Christmas 

HOLIDAYS IN WŁOCHY (ITALY): IN RZYM (ROME) AND MEDIOLAN (MILAN). ON EXONYMS IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE.

UNUSUAL NAMES OF COUNTRIES IN POLISH

On hearing that sentence many students doing a  Polish course get really confused. Where has the speaker been? Włochy... what country is that? And where is Rzym located? True... Exonyms, i.e. names given to foreign geographical names in another language, Polish in our case, may puzzle many students of Polish. Suddenly, the inhabitant of Berlin finds out that he is from Niemcy (z Niemiec), and the citizen of Hungary is from ... Węgry (z Węgier). We’ll get back to the names of the three countries later on (Włochy – Niemcy – Węgry). For now, let’s take a look at the names of some of the foreign cities.

POLISH NAMES OF WELL KNOWN EUROPEAN CITIES

 It is relatively easy to guess what names we have in mind when we say Paryż (Paris), Londyn (London),  Lizbona (Lisbon), Wilno (Vilnius), Haga (the Hague), or Bruksela (Brussels). These have simply been transcribed using Polish sounds. Polish name of the capital of Belgium might sound a bit confusing when compared to the English way it’s pronounced, but if we think of the French Bruxelles, the Polish form is not that surprising anymore.
When talking about your holiday plans or a business trip it’s good to know that Ghent is Gandawa, Rome – Rzym, Milano – Mediolan, Wien – Wiedeń, Beijing – Pekin, Munchen – Monachium, Firenze – Florencja, Koln – Kolonia, and Cape Town is... Kapsztad.

                                                         more on our Facebook profile

WHERE DOES THE NAME NIEMCY COME FROM?

In Polish classes teachers are often asked about the etymology of the names Niemcy, Włochy and Węgry.
It is believed that the form Niemcy is derived from the word memy, which described a person who speaks unintelligibly, not clearly. In short, the name appeared as a result of communication problems our ancestors had with the tribes inhabiting the area of today’s Germany.
The word Włochy derives from the Proto-Slavic name describing Romans, which we took over from the Germans, who initially called all Roman tribes Walh. And that name comes from the name of a Celtic tribe – Volcae. Among the Slavs, the term Wołch became common. Using this word the Slavs referred to all Romans, while in the Polish language it only referred to the inhabitants of the Apennine Peninsula.
In the Polish language as well as in other languages the name Hungary refers to the tribe of Huns, who used to inhabit the area of today’s Hungary before the ancestors of the present inhabitants . The Polish form Węgry is a transformed name of tribes that sounded like Onogur/Ongur. The Slavs are believed to have pronounced that as w-ągri.

THE LOCATIVE CASE OF NAMES OF COUNTRIES

When talking of the three above-mentioned countries we should bear in mind that they all have a plural form in the Polish language, and that they take an unusual ending in the locative case. Mówimy o (we talk about), opowiadamy o (we tell about), mieszkamy (live), pracujemy (work), and studiujemy (study) w Niemczech, we Włoszech but na Węgrzech.

Here you can learn more on the Polish declensions

I’D LIKE A KILO OF APPLES (POPROSZĘ KILO JABŁEK), OR SHOPPING IN POLISH

A FEW PHRASES AND NUMBERS

It would seem that doing the shopping is more or less the same wherever in the world we are. It’s enough to learn the names of several products, numbers and some practical phrases in a language, e.g. Polish, and you’re ready to go to the shops. Naturally, you can always “take the easy way out” and go to a supermarket. However, even before going there it’s a good idea to look up the names of departments, because the Polish piekarnia sounds nothing like the German “Backerei”, English “bakery” or Spanish “panderia”. Apart from piekarnia you might need words like pieczywo(bread and bread-like goods), nabiał (dairy products) or chemia gospodarcza (household chemicals). Having learned those words you won’t be confused once in a shop, and it’ll spare you the unnecessary run around the shop in search of one product.

KILO MEANS KILOGRAM

However, if you decide to go to a corner shop, you should do your homework and go over the „weight“ topic. Obviously, the official unit of mass in Poland is a kilogram, whose prototype is in Sevres, France. The question is, how it works in the Polish language. It is generally known that users of every language have habits of their own.
First of all, all Polish shoppers use the short form of the word kilogram. Therefore, a Pole buys 2 kilos (dwa kilo), not 2 kilograms, of apples, potatoes or plums at the market. For the same reason you should ask for pół kilo (half a kilo – 500 grams) of cheese.

BETWEEN GRAMS AND DEKAGRAMS

We hardly ever buy half a kilo of ham, though, unless we are throwing a big party. When we feel like a sandwich with ham we should ask for (attention!) 15 dekagrams (15 deka) of it. And here’s when many foreigners ask themselves: „What is DEKA?“. The answer is simple, it’s short for „dekagram“ (=100 grams). The Polish use dekagrams, not grams. That’s why when in a shop we ask for 20 deka, not 200 grams of cheese. Shop assistants will definitely understand if the customer says: Poproszę 250 gramów tych pysznych ciastek (I’d like 250 grams of those delicious biscuits), but it does sound a bit unnatural.

                                    In Polish we ask for „20 deka“ of cheese rahther than „200 gramów“

You will definitely learn about this habit in classes of Polish for foreigners (see here for more information on courses). If you’re not sure of something, ask your teacher, one of your Polish colleagues, check out our facebook profile, or remember to read our blog regularly.

PISZĘ BLOG or PISZĘ BLOGA? UNUSUAL USES OF THE ACCUSATIVE CASE

ACCUSATIVE MASCULINE

Anyone learning Polish as a foreign language will face that problem at some point. They already know that in the masculine gender accusative case takes one of the two forms: either -a ending or remains unchanged, i.e. it is the same as the nominative case (it is also called a zero ending – ø). Those attending the courses of Polish know that the –a ending refers to the so called masculine animate nouns (that’s why we say: mam męża, brata, kota, psa – I have a husband, brother, cat, dog), while the zero ending refers to the group of nouns that are masculine inanimate (that’s why we say: mam dom, samochód, komputer etc. – I have a house, car, computer).

BLOG, MEJL, SMS IN A POLISH LESSON

Right. Why then do we often hear: on pisze bloga (he’s writing a blog), wysłałam ci smsa (I’ve sent you a text message), kupiłem laptopa (I’ve bought a laptop), odebrałem twojego mejla (I’ve got your email)? All the nouns mentioned are of masculine inanimate gender. According to the rule, they should remain unchanged when put in the accusative case! Well. The rule says one thing, but life, or should we say, users of the language, say another. The above mentioned use of masculine inanimate nouns with the –a ending has become so common that Polish linguists had to give in and accept those forms. However, though acceptable, they are considered COLLOQUIAL, and the structures with masculine inanimate nouns in the nominative case still remain to be the correct ones (on pisze blog, wysyłam ci sms, kupiłem laptop, odebrałem twój mejl).
In the examples given we’ve used the words that have appeared in the Polish language quite recently, the words connected with the latest technologies. However, we face the same dilemma (whether to use the accusative case with or without the –a ending) when using the nouns that appeared in Polish a long time ago. We often say: jem kotleta, pomidora, banana, although the correct form is jem kotlet, pomidor, banan. The use of –a ending with those nouns has become so common that it will probably replace the zero ending over time.

CARS, DANCES, SPORTS: 
THE “LEGAL” –A ENDING IN THE ACCUSATIVE CASE

When learning the accusative case we should bear in mind that there is a great deal of inanimate nouns which take the –a ending, and that is THE ONLY CORRECT FORM they can take. We use it when talking about car makes (mam mercedesa, fiata, peugeota), dances (tańczyliśmy walca, fokstrota, swinga, rock and rolla), sports (gram w tenisa, golfa, pokera, brydża), types of flowers (dostałam jednego goździka, tulipana, irysa).
You can learn more about the exceptions and unusual uses of the language while attending our classes or using our app.