Traditions....Wesolych Swiat!

Christmas Eve.  It’s finally here.  I can’t believe it!  It’s a BIG day and lots of things are planned.   Since I’m a Polish Lowland Sheepdog – I thought that maybe I should share with you a few Polish Christmas traditions.  While my human is no expert because she has never lived in Poland  – and we don’t carry out all the rituals,  there ARE a few that we do in our household. 

First off, Christmas Eve dinner is called Wigilia.   And it’s a meatless meal. Fish is served, as are several vegetable dishes and mushroom or beet soup. But before the dinner begins, the humans share oplatek – which is a flat wafer that has been blessed.  Everyone shares a piece from everyone else – and they wish each other health and prosperity for the New Year.  Now my human has been doing this since she was a kid – and she did confide to me that the wafer tastes a bit like cardboard.  But the sentiment and good wishes are lovely.  AND – she also found out something this year that she didn’t know.  In the package of wafers, there is usually a colored wafer.  She always thought that was for the head of the family.  And so did her mother.  WRONGO.  The colored wafer is for the ANIMALS or PETS in the household –which corresponds to the fact that there were animals present at Jesus’ birth.  How COOL is THAT?! So guess who will be getting a piece of pink wafer this year?!!!  All of us boys!!! And we don’t care if it tastes like cardboard.  We’ll eat anything.  She read this on the internet – and we KNOW the net CAN be wrong.  But she likes the idea – so we’re sticking with it. And my human also read that if animals share the oplatek, at midnight they can speak in human voices!  Look out – we know I have a LOT to say!

Here, you see me looking at the manger.  Baby Jesus is missing – he doesn’t get here until midnight.  Atlantic time.  Christmas is HIS birthday and WE get presents because of it.  Santa is basically his delivery man and Santa also oversees quality control. 

Here I am. Knocking down shepherds.  We have a dog in our manger scene. So I had to get a closer look.

Once upon a time, my human and her family used to go to church at midnight to celebrate the arrival of Christmas.  Now everybody is about to fall asleep by 10:30 – so they now go to an earlier service.  My human can sing 1.5 Christmas carols IN Polish.  She has no idea what she is singing – but she heard them so much as a kid, that she memorized them.  The reason she only knows half of one is because all she can sing is the refrain.  Which she does quite loudly.  And of course, Frodo likes to sing along.

Traditions can be nice, even when they change a bit over time.  And making NEW traditions is also a good thing.  The main thing to remember is that Christmas is a time to share good wishes with others –family, friends, and of course canines (!) and maybe even some people you don’t know all that well.  Like some of you -who my human has never met -but who take the time to read my blog!  And Christmas is not all about the presents.  As I said yesterday -it’s all about the smiles…

So from our home to yours, I wish you Wesolych Swiat !!!!!!!!!   A VERY Merry Christmas and a day full of smiles and wags!!!!

©  2014 Linda Wozniak