Fot: wallpapersafari.com
Wigilia – a remedy to our mixed-up world?
A PolAm Christmas story
By Robert Strybel, Polish/Polonian Affairs Writer
Remember the Norman Rockwell-style images of the typical, loving American family that once graced Look, Life and Saturday Evening Post magazines as well as many wall calendars? Around the picture-perfect Thanksgiving or Christmas table sat a sweet white-haired grandmother, smiling aunts and uncles, well-behaved children in their holiday best and their happy parents – all admiring a kindly white-haired grandfather carving the done-to-perfection roast turkey. But suddenly that image evaporates and here we are in 2010!
Fot: wallpapersafari.com
It is Christmas or Thanksgiving and grandpa is not good-natured, but snappy and impatient, waiting for all this “family togetherness” to end so he can visit the wild divorcee he’s been seeing since grandma passed away last year. Fourteen-year-old Heather, now a self-declared vegetarian, makes faces of disgust at the “cannibalistic murder of that poor innocent turkey”. Her 16-year-old sister Holly is sulking because her parents won’t let her get a tattoo and tongue stud.
And then there is cousin Jennifer and her…ah-er-um “live-in lover”, “common-law husband”, “shack-up partner” or whatever they’re called these days, who have come to show off their new baby Justin. They not only have no intention of ever getting married or even having little Justin baptized but kept right on chatting during grace. The teenagers quickly wolf down the food it took the hosts so long to prepare and dash off to play computer games in the next room. And Uncle Bill has had one too many and gets into an argument over Obama’s health-care and immigration policies.
Fot: wallpapersafari.com
Does any of this sound familiar and ring a bell? Are similar scenarios unfolding in some of our Polish-American families as well? Obviously, no one remedy can solve all kinds of personal animosities and social ills. But maybe, just maybe, some aspects of our Polish Wigilia tradition could help soothe a few frazzled nerves and smooth some of the rough edges a bit.
For one, it is a time to set aside old grudges and let bygones be bygones, because you simply can’t dislike someone you share the opłatek with. And then there is the recurring theme: “How you are on Christmas Eve, you will be all year.” Surely, nobody in his right mind would actually want to be angry, depressed or at loggerheads with their fellow-man throughout all of 2011.
Then there is the exceptional nature of Polish Christmas Eve. Compared to other family meet-ups, on this one night a year everything is special, different and unique: the first star of the evening, the empty place at table, the Christmas wafer, the hay under the table-cloth and the special once-a-year foods. These couldn’t possibly escape the notice of even the grumpiest, most unsentimental grouch.
And the Wigilia food is a true vegetarian’s delight. There may be no soyburgers or tofu on the table, but there is a wide array of interesting dishes to choose from: meatless soups, gołąbki, pierogi and other treats incorporating mushrooms, sauerkraut, other veggies, noodles and grains as well as pancakes, fruit-based desserts and nut and poppyseed cakes.
Singing Polish Christmas carols (kolędy). Fot. Krystyna Teller
Rounding it all up are our Polish kolędy, probably the world’s most beautiful carols, which certainly create a deeper, richer, more meaningful mood than “Jingle Bells” and “Frosty the Snowman.”
And even the little kids are in for a treat. They get to open their presents right after Christmas Eve supper, while their non-Wigilia-celebrating playmates have to wait until the next day. It’s something to think about when trying to decide whether or not to celebrate the traditional Polish Wigilia with your loved ones this year.
