Our world is so diverse! We have so many December holidays such as Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and many more. Many don’t even get recognized so I would like to bring one of them to light. I personally celebrate this holiday and it’s a traditional part of Polish culture. What is it called? WIGILIA!
Let’s start with the basics. So how do you say it anyway? (Wi-Gi-la)? Nope. (Vi-GHEE-LEE-a)? Absolutely!
It is a Christmas based holiday, so it is a Christian holiday. It’s on December 24th every year. Wigilia is a Christmas eve vigil. (hence it is pronounced VIGilia) It is to prepare for Baby Jesus’ birth.
We traditionally don’t eat meat, or drink alcohol. We do however eat shrimp. Some foods we enjoy are perogies, (potato and cheese dumplings ) and Nonna’s Shrimp (creamy rice with lemon shrimp),
For dessert, we enjoy babka which is a Polish-Jewish bundt cake with farmer’s cheese filling. (It is NOT sweet) We also have homemade Christmas cookies, but that has nothing to do with Wigilia,
Another tradition during Wigilia is breaking the host! What is the host? The host is a bread-like cracker that is the body of Christ(Jesus). If you are Christian, you receive this at Church. Why do we eat this on Wigilia? It represents us receiving Jesus, and getting ready for his birth.
I hope you enjoyed learning about Wigilia! What holidays do you celebrate?
