All of us with Polish heritage have in common a unique set of chances of birth. Not for us the comfort of our grandparents living in the same town of...
March 29, 2018
It's time to hunt out the basket for the annual Święcone (Easter basket blessing). This tradition dates back many centuries when priests would go round homes blessing all the Easter...
March 9, 2018
My mother told me she was going to polish church this week to get a real feeing of Polish Lent, which made me think about how the whole period of...
March 2, 2018
I know we're already two weeks into Lent but with the Beast from the East and Storm Emma hitting the UK with blasts of snow up to half a metre...
February 3, 2018
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,...
