Children's Day

Children's Day is celebrated on June 1st in Poland. We have organized different sports competitions and many attractions for children from whole kindergarten. Teachers have prepared the performance "Gretel and Hansel" as well. All the best children!

Mothers Day

Mother's Day is celebrated on May 26th in Poland. We have organized FamilyDays in our kindergarten this year ( Father's Day is celebrated on June 23rd in Poland. Then, most of children are on holidays. That's why we havearranged Family Days in May).This year we have invited parents to the kindergarten on May 29th. Children have presented songs, poems, dance routines and different performances.Besides, children gave their parents presents: flowers to mothers and vases forthe flowers to fathers ( they were made from yoghurt bottles).

Easter decoration

Easter decoratin made from blow out eggs.

Easter eggs and chicken

Easter decoration - childen 5 years old.

Easter eggs - polish traditions

Marzanna - ferst day of spring

Marzanna - on the fourth Sunday in the time of fasting is a ceremony of destruction. Destruction, or Death is represented by a doll named Marzanna, Morena or simply death. This doll is plunged into water or burned. Marzanna’s symbolism represents winter, death, sickness, destruction and starvation of the people. This ritual is meant to speed up the onslaught of spring and is to this day still practiced albeit much less commonly than in the past. Today this is primarily practiced by children plunging the Marzanna doll into water. We bring our Marzanna to post office to send it "to the sea".

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day in Poland does not yet here a deep tradition. From 90s is more popular. We made heart.

Grandma day and Grandfather day

21 January - Grandma Day, 22 January - grandfather Day in Poland.
Today we invited to the kindergarten grandparents. Was the presentation - poems, songs and dances. Children's grandparents have done their own gifts.

Carnival in Poland

A popular event during the period after Christmas is the jasełka, a Nativity play staged by amateurs. In the country, you can still see carollers who go from house to house with a star or Nativity crib. Traditionally, they expect to be tipped for the visit; once the payment was in Christmas delicacies, but today these have been largely replaced by small change. The carollers are often dressed up and improvise scenes that loosely draw upon biblical motifs. Typically, the characters are King Herod, Angel, Devil, Death, sometimes Gypsy and a bear or goat.
The New Year's Day and its eve, known in Poland as Sylwester (St. Silvester's Day), begins the carnival - a period of balls and parties. One traditional form of having fun was kulig (sleigh rides), for centuries favoured by the Polish gentry and still extremely popular. A cavalcade of horse-pulled sleighs and sledges went from one manor house to another, entertained everywhere with hearty meals followed by dances. Today the rides are less spectacular, usually ending with a bonfire and sausages or the traditional bigos.
The last Thursday of the carnival is a day on which Poles stuff themselves with pączki (doughnuts) and deep-fried narrow strips of pastry known as chrust or faworki.
The carnival ends with revelry on Shrove Tuesday known as śledzik or śledziówka - the "herring feast", after the herrings eaten on that day as a herald of the coming Lent.

Gingerbread

Gingerbread to the traditional Polish on Christmas tree ornament.

Recipe:

100 grams of butter or margarine, 250 grams of honey, 1 / 3 glasses of sugar, 2 teaspoon of cinnamon and spices for gingerbread, 2 teaspoon of cocoa, 600 grams of flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, a pinch of salt, 2 eggs;

Dissolve butter, honey, sugar, cinnamon or spice to gingerbread, cocoa. Sift flour, add baking powder, salt, eggs. Add to the dissolved matter. A good cake, pin out. Foremkami-cut gingerbread cookies. Bake approximately 20 minutes on the fat spread tray. Decorate ice, nuts, almonds. Bon appetite!

Nativity scenes

Watching Nativity scenes - is a family tradition in Poland.

Polish Christmas Traditions

Christmas Eve - Wigilia

The Wigilia Meal is traditionally a meatless meal as it completes the fast which awaits the birth of God. The waiting or vigil (Wigilia) culminates in the sharing of the Christmas Wafer and the Wigilia Meal. It requires special traditional table setting and a festive menu of traditional dishes. The dinner is generally followed by singing of Carols and culminates in the Eucharistic Meal at the Midnight or Shepherd's Mass. The meal consists of a wide variety of special holiday dishes, all meatless. Customs vary throughout Poland; some families present twelve dishes for the twelve Apostles. Most serve an odd number of courses: 7, 9, or 11. The Wigilia dishes are prepared according to beloved family recipes. The foods are to represent the four corners of the earth: the mushrooms from the forest, grain from the fields, fruit from the orchards, fish from the lakes and sea. The meal always begins with a special soup, such as a Christmas Borscht with mushroom dumplings, followed by many elegant fish preparations, vegetables, and the beloved Polish pierogi. Typical dishes include carp in aspic, herring, breaded white fish, meatless cabbage rolls, noodles with poppy seed, noodles with cabbage and Polish mushrooms.

Typical Wigilia Menu: Appetizers :Smoked White fish, Pickled Vegetables, Cheese Selection

Soup: Christmas Borscht with mushroom dumplings, Main Course:Herring, Vegetables Salad, dumplings with polish mushrooms, White fish; Deserts: Poppy Seed, Honey Spice Cakes, stewed from dried fruit.

Christmas Wafer – Opłatek

The Polish family breaks the Wafer (Opłatek) on Christmas Eve (Wigilia) as their ancestors before them have done. The sacred white wafers, much like those used for Holy Communion, are shared with each person present. During the exchange, good wishes are expressed. This is the most emotional time of the holiday for the Polish family. Those who are no longer alive are particularly remembered at this moment. The pink wafer is shared with the animals who, according to Polish tradition, because they were first to greet the Baby Jesus speak at midnight. This is the most sacred night in the Polish -Polonian Home.

The Midnight Mass

Poles call the Midnight Mass the Shepherd's Mass or Pasterka. Traditionally, the family's Wigilia celebration culminates when all go together to Mass. The Midnight Mass is usually preceded by communal singing of the beloved Polish Koledy. The Mass itself is a joyous and majestic liturgical event, because Bog Sie Rodzi--God is Born, as the great Polish Carol says. It is also traditional for families to visit the Crèche to pray together to the Infant Jesus. This is particularly emphasized in families with young children. Following Mass, many families return home for a snack and more celebration.

Our christmas tree

In our kindergarten is the custom decorative Christmas tree together with children and parents.

The feast Saint Nicholas

The feast Saint Nicholas - Santa Claus

On the 6^th of December we celebrate the feast of Saint Nicholas. The tradition of giving small presents has its beginnings in the Middle Ages about 1000 years after the death of patron saint- Nicholas - the bishop of Mira. He had reputation for secret gift- giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him and now is commonly identified with Santa Claus.
In Poland, St. Nicholas was called Święty Mikołaj. He also visited dressed as a bishop and an angel to help him with his sleigh pulled by a white horse and full of goodies, which are usually sweets and toys. He also encouraged children to be on their best behaviour. When he appears, the eager children cry, “He has come! He has come!”. St. Nicholas presence fills the room with smile, the twinkle in his eye, and his welcoming, booming voice. If he doesn’t come in person, treats are put under sleeping children’s pillows or left in freshly cleaned and polished shoes left out for the saint. Santa Claus sometimes returned on Christmas Eve with gifts the children requested in letters, he asking questions to determine how the children have behaved.
We celebrated the feast of St. Nicholas on the 5^th of December in our kindergarten. Every year we write letters with requests to Santa Claus, then he visits our groups. We give him gifts which are made by us as well. The children from my group gave Santa Claus an unusual letter this year. They requested for health to their friend.

Our kindergarten

Our kindergarten