Christmas Eve for Polonians (a.k.a. persons of Polish descent) is called Wigilia. My parents spoke the word, but never explained its Polish etymology.
I recall asking my dad: "Why does our family always open gifts on Christmas Eve, when all my buddies do it on Christmas Day?" His answer was predictable. "It's our tradition!"
We had many traditions, but I loved our Christmases the best.
The Latin origins of the word Wigilia are the same as those of the English word "vigil," which means keeping watch in expectation of something. Of course, what the Christian world awaits on Dec. 24 is the birth of Jesus, the Christ Child.
On Christmas Eve, it is customary for Catholics to attend a Midnight Mass. When I was young, the entire parish seemed to attend. I loved the Mass, and always served as an altar boy, carrying the cross in the processions.
In many regions of Poland, Christmas is usually referred to as Gwiazdka, or "little star." It is the appearance of the first star in the eastern sky that Polish children await most eagerly on Christmas Eve. This evocation of the Star of Bethlehem signals the commencement of Wigilia festivities.
The epicurean delights begin with the sharing of the opatek, or what we called "holy bread," which looked and felt like a Communion wafer. In many churches, the priest actually did sprinkle holy water on packages of opatek before they were sold to the congregation.
Part of the magic of Christmas Eve was the reunion, in fact or in thought, with relatives and friends, present, distant or deceased. This found particular eminence in the ritual of the opatek, an unconsecrated bread wafer that was frequently embossed with Christmas scenes.
Here's how the opatek is ceremoniously shared: each person holds some part of an opatek in one hand, while with the other hand they break off a piece of opatek that is being held in the hand of the other person. Then, before ingesting the newly broken-off pieces, each participant wishes the other whatever the heart dictates - for example, "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." The ceremony is repeated with everyone present, family and friends alike. My wife, Rita, and I then kiss each other.
The opatek ceremony, one of the most enduring and meaningful Christmas Eve traditions in Poland, need not occur on Christmas Eve itself.
The opatek - frail, perishable - has for all Poles a mystical meaning, something that cannot be explained logically. At Christmastime, it is sent to absent members and close friends in other lands who, in their loneliness, partake of it as a kind of communion with their absent loved ones. The most cherished sentiments in the opatek ceremony are reconciliation and the coming together of all persons.
After the evening Wigilia dinner, attention turns to the Christmas tree and the exchange of presents. This typically was our family's first sight of the wondrous tree, decorated with glass apples, paper chains, beautiful straw, paper ornaments and candles. Under the tree lay the packages and the marvelous, exciting things they concealed.
The Christmas tree was first introduced to Poland just a hundred years ago, and with it the custom of giving gifts on Christmas Eve rather than New Year's Day. The tradition was brought to Poland by German settlers who came in massive numbers during the period of the Partitions - that is, from 1795 to 1918, when Poland was occupied by the Prussians (i.e., Germans, Russians and Austrians).
Various decorations were draped on the tree, among them the "forbidden fruit," (that is, apples), as well as paper chains meant to symbolize the biblical serpent. The Christmas tree was thus a symbol of the Garden of Eden's tree of life.
The tree my dad bought when I was kid cost him $2. The tree stand was a bucket of coal. Mom never believed that a bucket of coal should have water in it, so the tree literally fell apart by New Year's Day. And, by local tradition, it had another week to stay up! It looked weird - no needles, but lots of ornaments still blinking.
The ancient Polish custom was to hang the tree from the ceiling. Doorways and walls were decorated with separate boughs of spruce. Larger boughs, decorated with ribbons, wafers and straw ornaments, were hung above the Wigilia dinner table.
In the Krakow region in Poland, families decorated the upside-down top of a pine tree with apples, nuts, pears and gingerbread. Beginning the day after Christmas, these delicacies could be eaten by children and carolers.
The other important components of Christmas were straw and, set under the white tablecloth, hay. These materials evoked the Christmas Nativity, but the use of straw dates from an even earlier Polish tradition; straw symbolized the hair of Mother Earth, a symbol of fertility and plenty.
Thus sheaves of wheat were placed in the four corners of the room or, less frequently, a pleated straw cord would be wrapped around the lower part of the holiday table. In urban settings, this custom was displaced with a handful of straw on a plate, tied together with a ribbon.
In the folk tradition, the turn of the year was thought of as a time when the barriers between the here-and-now and the world of magic, ghosts and the supernatural became more permeable. On Christmas Eve, homes were haunted by the spirits of the ancestors; that was the original reason for leaving an empty setting at the Wigilia dinner table.
A big bonfire frequently would be set in the yard or garden beside the house, so that the frozen ghosts could warm themselves up before entering. In those days it was thought prudent to clap one's hands before sitting down at the table, so as not to startle some weary soul who might be resting there.
During the festive dinner, the older children pulled pieces of hay from under the tablecloth to see how soon they would enter into marriage vows. If the piece was green, it meant quite soon; if it was wilted a longer wait could be expected; and if yellow - spinsterhood loomed. Personally, I never performed the action.
Such were the traditions. These days I put up a pre-decorated, artificial, miniature tree. It stands nicely on our dining room buffet. It shines brightly, and I still get twinges of the holiday spirit.
Yet I fondly treasure those memories of Christmas past.
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