New Year in Poland-
Customs and Traditions
The Central European
country of Poland celebrates its New Year
on the date of January 1st. The time in and
around New Year is excitedly awaited by everyone in the Poland. New
Year’s Day, out of its traditional relevance, is also called as St. Sylvester’s
Eve.
According to legends, it is associated
with Pope Sylvester I, who supposedly caught a dragon named Leviathan.
On the first date of the
year of 1000, the dragon was able to get himself liberated from Pope
Sylvester’s regime and went on to
demolish land, people, as well as set fire to the heavens. However, the dragon was later caught again, and the world still survived itself on the New Year’s
Day. In the commemoration of the same, people started celebrating and rejoicing
the New Year’s Day as St. Sylvester’s Day.
New Year Celebrations in Poland
The New Year
celebrations as made in Poland are regular in some ways, and complete unique in
some others. Festival time during New
Year in Poland is prominently about spending some good time with close friends
and family members at home while
spreading happiness and cheer.
Many others wish to do
the same by planning an outing, or a night party in a famous night club,
discotheque, or a pub preferably offering something more than usual on New
Year’s Eve. The pop concerts, which most of the time are open air concerts, are
also organized in many places in Poland
and are attended by thousands and more.
A bottle of champagne is
necessary to be toasted at midnight in the family party, street party, or any
other common or uncommon place where the place
is going on. Some of these parties are so prominently classic and vibrant that one might lose an entry in any one
of them if one starts planning any time
later than the month of September.
So, one need to have
reservations far ahead of time, if one wishes to be in those big-time classic
parties. Those holding private parties make sure to have great dinners with equally beautiful dishes on the platter, necessarily
including sausages and bigos.
There are some who wish
to get close to nature during the time of
New Year. The preferred places are the marvelous Tantra Mountains, from where
one can see the beautiful sunrise of the first dawns
of the New Year rising over the mountains range. Also, since it is the time of
the year when Poland is in dry cold weather, with a little powdery snowfall,
many people loves to spend their New Year’s time in skiing or sledding. Some people plan to have a loose party in a forest, by putting up a
bonfire, and singing and dancing around it the whole
night.
Traditional New Year Celebrations in Poland
For the fact, even in
the present time, only affluent families living in Poland can have those special New Year’s Eve and New
Year’s Day celebrations. Therefore, one can find the majority of the people spending the time getting glued to a television set, which on a special day is telecasting special programs.
However, the core of New
Year celebrations in Poland quotes that no one should be lonely for the day. It
is not necessary the way they celebrate it, but the important thing is that one
has to feel good and be optimistic. There is also a tradition of wishing at
least one person good by saying, “do siego roku,”
which refers to “I wish you well.”
Also, there is an
important tradition of smudging windows and
doorknobs of the house with tar, or to hide pots that were left drying
on a fence. Doing all such things is traditionally believed to symbolize for
driving out the old year, and welcoming
the New Year. Some parts of the country have people baking donuts, with the belief that it will ensure abundance of wealth in the coming year.
The view from my balcony.
