Deutsch Lettisch
Welche Feste im Jahreslauf gefeiert werden:
Hier zum Vergleich drei Beispiele, wie in Polen Weihnachten gefeiert wird
Beispiel 1
Christmas is a
Christian Festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. The word
Christmas comes from Christ’s Mass.
In
Poland it starts from Christmas Eve – very important day which is called
the Festival of the Star. People go without food all day, preparing for
the feast that begins as soon
as the first star appears. An empty plate is always placed on the table,
for an unexpected guest. The meals consists of twelve dishes, including
fish, mushrooms, cabbage, but no meat. After the meal the candles on the
Christmas tree are lit, carols are sung and presents are opened. A lot of
people go to Midnight Mass.
On
Christmas morning plenty of people go to church to celebrate the birth of
Christ. In the middle of the day Christmas dinner is served.
The
most well – recognized Christmas symbol is the Christmas tree. All the
people have them in their homes. They are decorated with lights, stars,
glass ornaments, paper chains etcetera are various Christmas presents
under them. This tradition began with the Three Wise Men who came from the
desert with gifts for the new – born Child.
During
the Christmas season greetings are expressed and cards are sent to family
and friends with whom it is impossible to meet.
Some
of the people are complaining that this beautiful holiday is becoming
commercialized. Shopping malls and department stores try to attract
customers with all kinds of sales. They are helped by the best advertising
agent ever created, Santa Claus, about whom the late Polish writer
Melchior Wańkowicz once wrote:
“He
does not smile at children but the wallets of their parents”.
Although
the American – style Santa has largely replaced Poland’s traditional
“Święty Mikołaj”, the Poles have held to their
“Wigila” tradition with its symbolism , Christmas wafer (“opłatek”)
and meatless foods. Perhaps it’s a good thing that this tradition is
limited to this corner of Central Europe.
Beispiel 2
Christmas time-it’s
the most beautiful time and my favourite festival.
It’s
connected with the birth of Jesus Christ. We celebrate Christmas once a
year-but every time it’s magnificent and exciting. Preparations add the
charm to waiting for Christmas.
My
family starts preparing for Christmas in the middle of December. Large
housework, shopping-these are inseparable parts of preparing. I don’t
like housework but I love shopping. I look for the Christmas gifts for
every member of my family. These are small things, which make happy
recipient person. Sometimes I meet on the street the fat Santa Claus with
white bread, wearing a red anorak. He cries: “Marry Christmas!” and
give me a chocolate sweet. Atmosphere is unusual when it’s snowing- then
I want to join to children making snowman and sledging.
In
Polish schools there are Christmas plays called “Nativity Play”. We
can watch some scenes from Jesus birth, we sing Christmas carols and wish
each other “Merry Christmas”. There are little sheds and beautiful
decorated Christmas trees in churches.
In
Poland we start celebrating Christmas on 24-th December and this day is
called “Christmas Eve”. I get up early and look out of the window. I
look for the snow. Later I decorate the Christmas tree with electric
candles, colourful balls, stars, sweets, and bells small angels. There’s
a big, gold star on the top. I listen and sing Christmas carols – in
introduced in special atmosphere the Christmas tree. While my mother makes
delicious dishes. I make vegetable salads. We don’t spend Christmas Eve
in our house. We spend it with our big family in grandmother’s house. We
go there about o’clock. There’s a big Christmas tree from the forest,
under branches there are a lot of presents in colour papers. I am happy
like a child waiting for something special. There are twelve dishes on the
table. There’s mushrooms soup, pies, compote made of dry plums, some
kinds of corps, salads, cakes etc. There’s one free table–ware for
unknown guest. I always pay Christmas carols on my crosswise flute. My
family sing. We break wafer and say wishes to each other. Then comes the
most exciting moment – giving presents. I’m happy like a child.
Sometimes comes cradlers wearing clothes of angels and sings Christmas
carols. Time is going on in specifically, warm family atmosphere. I love
Christmas. It’s an occasion to meet with family, get presents...
It’s
the time of musing, too. I know that there are
people, who don’t fell happiness this day...
Beispiel 3
We
have quite a lot of festivals
here in Poland but the most popular
one is Christmas and it is my favourite festival, too. Christmas
is on 25th December and it is the time when the
Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ.
My
family starts preparing for Christmas in the middle of December. We send
Christmas
cards
to our family and friends. We also look for Christmas gifts. Each member
of our
family
gets a gift from the others so the pile of packets under the Christmas
tree is really huge. A few days before Christmas my father buys a tall
Christmas tree and stores it on our balcony. It waits there until all the
celebrations start.
In
Poland we start celebrating Christmas on 24th December and this
day is called the Christmas Eve. Then there is Christmas Day and finally
we have the Second Day of
Christmas on 26th December.
What
is the Christmas Eve like in our country?
On Christmas Eve morning the youngest person in the
family has to decorate the Christmas tree. I decorate
it with special electric candles, colourful balls
and chains made of
silver and gold paper. I also put some
candies and red apples
on the tree. At the top of the tree there is a big star with a little bulb
inside. While I decorate the tree my sisters helps my mother in the
kitchen. They prepare traditional Polish dishes for the Christmas Eve
Supper. We eat some of these dishes only once a year – just on this
special evening.
The
tradition says that there must be twelve dishes on the Christmas
Eve table. We usually have even more. We eat borsch –a soup made
of beetroots –and carp. Carp can be
fried, roast or boiled. It can also be served cold in a special
jelly. We also eat gołąbki
(this dish does not have an
English name); they are made from cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and
mushrooms and served with a delicious mushroom sauce. We have other things
like: salad, peas and cabbage, noodles with poppy, cakes, etc. On
this special day we mustn’t eat meat. After supper
we sing Christmas
carols and afterwards we unwrap our gifts. There is a lot of noise and
laughter at this time and this is my favourite moment.
On Christmas morning we all go to church. Then we go far a very long walk. Afterwards we visit my family and we eat Christmas dinner. In the afternoon our
parents
talk with the rest of the family. We have a lot fun . In the
evening we come back home and watch television. On this day kids are
allowed to watch TV till late night. On the second day of Christmas we
visit some family friends or
they visit us. We eat, talk and play
some kind of games. Then we watch television again.
I
like Christmas very much because it is a very joyful festival. Everybody
is happy and relaxed. There is a lot of delicious food and
what is more important I get many wonderful presents.