A Polish Christmas and New Year's Eve - A nostalgic Return to the Past - Wishing 'the happy few' who read my ramblings this year a Happy Christmas 2015 and an optimistic and affluent New Year 2016
At Christmas time the importance of the Polish family is ever-present - a force that binds this society together with affection and love. On Christmas Eve a blessed wafer is broken by each member of the family and best wishes are made for the future. The appalling history of loss in Poland meant the family and the Catholic church were often the sole refuge from oppression. Here in Poland the family at Christmas is to be warmly embraced not fled from in anguish. I quote from the unedited version of Chapter 27 of my book A Country in the Moon for a nostalgic account of Christmas and New Year in Poland at the turn of the millennium. There has never been a better one for me. The 'Writer's Cut' if you will. Some 30,000 words and many evocative scenes were cut from my original manuscript of this literary travel book before publication - all quite normal in publishing today but what treasures were lost! How life in Poland has changed since those far off days! The char