Flyer: Wigilia
Mediumpaper
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.88.21
DescriptionFlyer: description and recipes of Wigilia, Polish Christmas Eve, produced by the Polish Cultural Club of Greater Hartford
NotesSubject Note: Wigilia/Christmas Eve Traditions - The most important holiday of the year, Wigilia marks a time of watching for the birth of Jesus. The weeks of Advent just before and the Wigilia customs themselves focus on setting things in order, following good behavior and being ready and worthy for the gift of the Savior. During the day, people observe a fast; then at the appearance of the first star in the evening sky, families gather for the Christmas Eve supper. Hay is placed under the tablecloth, and often a place is set in anticipation of the Christ child or for an unexpected guest. Opłatek, thin wafers embossed with pictures of the nativity scene and blessed in the church, are broken and shared among everyone at the table. As the head of the household hands one to each person, a greeting such as this is given: "Nie Bóg daj rok doczekacz - May God grant you another year." Sharing opłatek represents the heart of this holiday, when wrongs or bad feelings between people are rectified and positive hopes for the future restored. Wafers are sent to distant relatives and even offered to animals, as they were the first creatures to offer hospitality to Christ. After the opłatek ceremony, an odd number of meatless dishes are served, representing the harvests of fields, gardens, woods, rivers, and orchards. The family sings traditional carols, kołędy, then attends midnight mass, called Pasterka, the shepherds’ mass.Wigilia traditions persist strongly in Polonia, probably because of their intensely spiritual meaning and the important concepts of reconciliation and salvation that underlie the rituals. The power of this holiday derives from its sense of community and fellowship - every Polish person is celebrating in the same way all over the world. In addition to family Wigilias on Christmas Eve, Polish churches, clubs, and societies hold communal Wigilias and carol singing for their members. The Polish Cultural Club of Greater Hartford has its Wigilia supper this year on December 8. Polish Americans decorate their homes with traditional ornaments made from straw, paper, tin foil, beads, and eggs in the shape of stars or “spiders”, and place these on their Christmas trees.
Subject Note: The Polish community comprises nearly 10% of the state’s population, settling here during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when New England’s industrial growth made jobs plentiful in mills and factories. Thousands from rural areas of Poland left behind difficult political and economic circumstances to work in America. A similar movement of people took place in the 1980s, and Polish newcomers continue to arrive, bringing a very different sense of “Polishness” and cultural tastes from the older immigrants. Uprooted from their homeland and all that is familiar, these new Americans have found refuge in maintaining traditional customs, beliefs, foods, language, and joining together in fraternal, cultural, political, academic, and veterans societies. Parish churches fill a very important function as centers for social organization and cultural unity as well as providing spiritual and emotional comfort. The Polish saying Co kraj, to obyczaj explains that in the American Polish communities called Polonia some of the old practices change to fit new circumstances, or disappear altogether among recent generations.
The seasonal round of celebrations, festivals, holidays, along with the activities and art forms associated with them, connect Polish Americans to a dimension of beauty, meaning, spirituality, and heritage which they remember from the past but also practice today. In Connecticut works of art and everyday objects for use in the home are still made by hand in traditional Polish styles. Older objects from Poland are often redecorated with materials found here, and the process of creating and using these pieces shows an active expression of identity, not a mere recreation of old folk art forms.
New Britain, the center of Polonia in Connecticut, has a longstanding language school and folk dance group. Central Connecticut State University hosts the Polish and Polish American Studies Program and Library – one of only two such programs in the country. Broad Street is a thriving center of Polish commerce and activity, and has hosted an annual festival since 2012 called “Little Poland.” The festival is held in late April to mark Poland’s Constitution Day, a celebration of the democracy enjoyed by Americans under their country’s Constitution. In Hartford, the historically Polish neighborhood around Wyllys St/Popieluszko Court/Charter Oak Avenue included SS Cyril and Methodius Church, the Church School, the Polish National Home, and several businesses.
Community celebrations and seasonal holidays often follow the liturgical calendar of the Church. Christmas is celebrated with Pasterka, the midnight mass of the shepherds when koledy, holy carols, are sung. On the Feast of Epiphany, chalk is blessed in the church and used to inscribe door lintels with K + M + B, the initials of the three kings. At Easter, baskets of food for the Easter breakfast are blessed in the church. Processions mark Corpus Christi, the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament (and a ritual to ensure good crops) in June. In the late summer, harvest festivals called Dożynki featuring an open-air or church Mass with a blessing and distribution of bread, folk dancing, craft and food vendors are held in New Britain, Bristol, and Bridgeport/Ansonia. Harvest ornaments, large structures of wheat sheafs decorated with flowers and ribbons, are made and displayed by community artists. On All Souls Day in November Polish families visit the graves of their relatives, decorating them with candles and flowers after an outdoor mass.
Subject Note: The Polish Cultural Club of Greater Hartford “was established in 1976 to preserve and promote the history, culture, and customs of Poland with fellow Americans." An active organization that has held many meetings at the Polish National Home on Charter Oak Avenue in Hartford, the Club sponsors lectures, seasonal celebrations such as Wigilia at Christmas time, the annual szopka festival, and gives scholarships and support to Scouts groups. The Club collaborates with the Polish Foundation and the CCSU Polish Studies Department and Library in New Britain.
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for this community.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
Polish Cultural Club of Greater Hartford
G. F. Heublein & Bro.
