Quirky, weird & delightful
Every country has its own set of unusual traditions and Polish traditions are no different. Some are quirky, some are outright weird, even annoying – but most of them are delightful. Here’s a few that we think you need to know about.
The way Polish people greet each other in elevators ticks the delightful box. Even if they are complete strangers, it is common practice so say dzień dobry (good day) when entering an elevator and do widzenia (good bye) when exiting.
When you are invited to someone’s home, it is usual to bring a gift. Flowers are the easy choice but ensure that you buy an odd number of flowers because an even number is associated with funerals.
Polish Traditions
One of the most annoying Polish traditions is lector (voice dubbing) of films shown on TV. In the majority of cases, an English language film will have a lector who reads the translation over the original voices. The strangest thing about this is that the lector is just one guy who speaks over the voices of men and women in a flat, monotone deep voice.
In Poland, everyone has a name day in addition to a birthday and many people (especially elderly women) prefer to celebrate this above their birthday so that they do not have to mention their age publicly. This tradition has Catholic roots and is linked to the naming of children after saints.
Make sure that you have lots of change on you when you visit the local store because the cashier will ask you to pay some change so that she can give you back a round number and don’t be surprised if you are behind someone at the till who is paying the entire bill in change – coin-by-coin.
Other quirky traditions include: being offered slippers to wear when you enter a Polish household and eating pizza covered in either garlic sauce or ketchup.
Below you will find information about the most important annual Polish traditions such as Fat Thursday & Śmigus Dyngus.
Make your descent to 64 meters below the surface of Krakow for a guided tour of one of the most popular World Heritage sites in Poland. Wander through chambers, see underground lakes, shrines and salty monuments in one of the oldest UNESCO-listed salt mines!
Of all the traditions in Poland, Fat Thursday is one of the most popular, one of the oldest (16th century) and definitely the tastiest. Fat Thursday (Tłusty czwartek in Polish) happens every year in February and on the last Thursday prior to Ash Wednesday marking the beginning of Lent. It basically involves eating as many doughnuts as possible; which apparently brings you good luck.
Christmas in Poland is taken very seriously and is mainly focused on family, friends & food. It is very different to Christmas in the UK or USA but has similarities with some other European countries. Traditionally during Advent, families would bake Christmas gingerbread and use it to make their own decorations. Gingerbread was made into a variety of shapes including hearts, animals and St. Nicholas figures.
There’s no escaping the connotations that Easter in Poland is all about religion; however this is far from reality, it is also about eating and spending time with your family & friends. Second only to Christmas, Easter is one of the most beautiful celebrations of the year, it is also a time which marks the end of winter and the promise of sunny weather ahead. Preparation for the Easter holiday begins with Lent.
Śmigus Dyngus is a celebration held on Easter Monday each year; which traditionally involved men throwing buckets of water over women. The ladies were supposed to wait until the next day to get their revenge by soaking the guys but the reality today is a massive water fight with everyone soaking everyone on the same day.
When it comes to whacky & bizarre traditions, the drowning of Marzanna scores 11/10 and has a distinct Children of the Corn feel about it. The tradition is a surviving pagan ritual in which an effigy of the goddess of winter, plague and death is set alight and then drowned. Marzanna is sometimes referred to as Winter’s Witch and according to Slavic superstition, she had to be killed to ensure that spring arrived on time and the harvest was plentiful.
All Saint’s Day (Wszystkich Swietych in Polish) occurs on 1st November every year and is a public bank holiday. Originally, this day was only used to celebrate the saints; nowadays it is also a day when Poles remember deceased family and friends and is known colloquially as The Day of the Dead. On All Saint’s Day, the Polish will happily travel hundreds of kilometres across Poland to visit the graves of their relatives, sometimes visiting three or four different cemeteries in different towns.
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