page_title: Wigilia
section_title: The Wigilia Supper
hierarchical_section_title: Wigilia / Traditions and customs / The Wigilia Supper
caption_attribution_description: English: Table set for Shabbat with challah and wine.
context_page_description: Wigilia is the traditional Christmas Eve vigil supper in Poland, held on December 24. The term is often applied to the whole of Christmas Eve, extending further to Pasterka - midnight Mass, held in Roman Catholic churches all over Poland and in Polish communities worldwide at or before midnight. The custom is sometimes referred to as "wieczerza" or "wieczerza wigilijna", in Old Polish meaning evening repast, linked to the late church service, Vespers from the Latin.
  The word Wigilia derives from the Latin vigil. The associated feasting follows a day of abstinence and traditionally begins once the First Star has been sighted. Christmas is also sometimes called "Gwiazdka", "little star".
context_section_description: A Christmas Eve dinner excludes meat, as  abstinence is required and should comprise twelve distinct dishes in memory of the twelve Apostles. It begins with a soup, either Borscht with Uszka (tortellini), or wild mushroom consommé (grzybowa), followed by herring in different forms. Fish provides the main dish of the Christmas Eve feast across Poland. There are variations of carp fillet, carp in aspic, gefilte fish (Jewish-style carp), sweet with onions, carrots, almonds and raisins. Accompaniments consist of cabbage, cooked red or Sauerkraut with apple salad. The bread served at the meal is often Challah, doubtless borrowed from Poland's centuries-long Jewish fellow countrymen. Then there is an array of desserts, including dried fruit compote, followed by cake: poppy seed cakes, babka, makowiec , and other delicacies including edible Christmas ornaments. Regional variants include, żurek sour rye soup, siemieniotka (in Silesia), Kulebiak, pierogi filled with cheese and potatoes as well mushrooms and cabbage, stuffed cabbage with mushrooms and rice, gołąbki (cabbage rolls), kluski with poppyseed, and makówki (in Silesia). There is in places a belief that whatever happens on Wigilia affects the incoming year; if a quarrel should arise, it foretells a quarrelsome and troublesome year. Traditionally, an extra place is set on the table for an "uninvited guest".
caption: The bread used throughout Wigilia has been borrowed from Shabbat, especially the challah (Polish: chałka)
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