My English childminder carried out a vote amongst her children as to whether they’d like to celebrate Chinese New Year, Pancake Day or Fat Thursday and guess which one was...
January 27, 2018
Last year John Lewis declared that the tablecloth is on its “dying out” list. In store, many are permanently on offer. Clearly there are fewer families eating meals together at...
December 27, 2017
Carollers (Kolędnicy) on the whole sing about the Nativity, but in Poland the tradition of Kolęda doesn't just focus on the birth of Jesus. From 26th December, St Szczepan's (St Stephen's)...
December 21, 2017
In less than 100 hours, we will sit down to our Wigilia (Christmas Eve) feast, breaking opłatek (Christmas wafer) with our families and wishing each other our heart's desires. As...
November 29, 2017
This weekend I will be getting together with a group of young girls and amongst hoots of laughter and hysterics about whether they will get married, become spinsters or nuns,...
October 28, 2017
As I returned today from cleaning Polish graves at our local cemetery with the scouts, in time for Zaduszki (All Saints and All Souls Days) on 1 and 2 November,...
October 21, 2017
The Danish concept of 'hygge' has been all the rage here in the UK these past two years; it resonates because British people love to find any new way to...
October 11, 2017
The images of Poland we 'English Poles' grew up with in post-war UK were, I suspect, nothing like what our contemporaries in Poland had. Our identity was rooted in the past and...
August 25, 2017
As I've travelled around Poland this summer, I've thought about the many differences between Polish and British culture. Some are quite superficial but others much deeper. Here are the ones...
August 15, 2017
There are two reasons, intertwined due to history and tradition, peasant, church and military. There's a holiday atmosphere to this day, re-established in 1992 and the flags are out in...
