What is Wigilia?............................... Christine A. Smyczynski

What is Wigilia?

A Polish Christmas Eve vigil supper

STORY AND PHOTOS BY CHRISTINE A. SMYCZYNSKI

Oplatek wafers depict the nativity scene.

For as long as I can remember, my family has a Polish Wigilia (in English: vigil supper) on Christmas Eve. In Poland, where both sets of my grandparents are from, it is considered the most important meal of the year, as it is the celebration of Christ’s birth. This meatless meal is usually eaten after sundown on December 24, after the first star appears in the sky.

Old world tradition calls for twelve courses. Most families serve fewer, though usually an odd number. The table is set with a white tablecloth over a thin layer of straw that recalls the baby Jesus’s manger of hay. (I usually just pluck a couple pieces of straw from the manger scene to place under the tablecloth.)

After saying grace, my family shares the oplatek, a thin, unleavened wafer, similar to a communion wafer, which has been blessed by a priest but not consecrated. Each person starts with a large wafer, approximately two-by-four inches. As we go around to the other people at the table, we break pieces off of each other’s wafers and offer happiness and other well wishes for the coming year, such as a successful year at school. It’s like individual toasting, only with a wafer. My late mother ended her wishes with “And whatever your heart desires.” In her memory, we all say that now.

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When I was a child, the oplatek wafer was usually only available from Catholic churches with mostly members of Polish ancestry. However, I have noticed more Catholic churches embracing this tradition and offering wafers in the weeks leading up to Christmas. An envelope usually contains three sheets of wafer stamped with a nativity scene.

Some families light a candle in the window to welcome Jesus in the form of a stranger who might come to share the supper. An extra place is set in the event he comes because, according to the ancient Polish adage, “A guest in the home is God in the home.”

We start our meal with mushroom soup. I use Progresso, because only a handful of us eat it. My mother also used canned soup, though, one year, many years ago, she received some dried mushrooms from Poland and made soup from scratch. Let’s just say that this type of soup must be an acquired taste! I also serve shrimp cocktail as an appetizer.

The dinner has evolved over the years. When my mother hosted, she served a white fish; I serve salmon since it’s the only fish everyone in my family likes.

I also serve gluten-free pierogi, since my daughter needs to eat gluten-free. I make them from scratch a couple days before Christmas. I fill them with farmers cheese filling, potato and cheddar cheese, and some with just potato. I have a really good recipe for sweet and sour cabbage that goes well with this meal; I make enough so we can also have it with the ham and Polish sausage I serve on Christmas Day. To round out our Wigilia, there’s corn, mashed potatoes, and gluten-free rolls.

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Traditional Polish kolachi

And yes, there’s dessert! I put out several different kinds of homemade, gluten-free cookies. One of our favorites is called kolachi, a cream cheesebased dough cookie filled with strawberry jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Both my mother and mother-in-law used to make these cookies. I also make a gluten-free placek (coffee cake), which disappears fast!

After we clean up from dinner, we sit down to watch Muppet Family Christmas. I taped this from TV when our oldest, now thirty-two, was little. I think the kids enjoy the vintage nineties commercials as much as the show.

We then head to Midnight Mass to celebrate the meaning of Christmas. With COVID a concern the past couple years, we viewed mass online. I’m confident that this year, we will be able to resume our tradition of attending Midnight Mass in person this Christmas Eve. FY

Christine A. Smyczynski is the author of several travel guides about Western New York and New York State. In addition, she has written hundreds of articles on a variety of topics for local, regional, and national publications.

No traditional Polish Christmas would be complete without pierogis.