Polish Lesson of the Day: “Andrzejki”
Since this blog is supposed to be about Poland, I will take this opportunity to tell you about the holiday of Andrzejki (St. Andrew’s Day). It takes place on November 30th and on the Eve of Andrzejki (today) it’s kind of like a girls’ night! More in the slumber party kind of girls’ night though… well plus cocktails. St. Andrew is actually the patron saint of Scotland and there it is considered an official holiday. However, the day is also for some reason unofficially celebrated throughout Eastern Europe in Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Poland.
In Scotland, St. Andrew’s Day can I guess be compared to Flag Day in the U.S. Completely unrelated in the Eastern European version of the day, superstitious belief exists that the night before St. Andrew’s Day is specially suitable for magic that reveals a young woman’s future husband or that binds a future husband to her. I have no idea how this belief came about but we get to do lots of fun activities that involve talking about boys! Eeeeee! *giggle, giggle*
I will describe the Polish traditions of this eve:
Pouring hot wax through the hole in a key (think skeleton key): You pour hot wax through the hole into cold water. You then take the piece of wax and hold it up to the wall to make a shadow. The shape of the shadow is supposed to tell you something about your future. I did this in my Polish language class. Everyone else seemed to have shapes of hearts, people, babies, etc. Mine was jumbled mess of confusion. Typical.
Throwing your shoe: Take your left shoe and throw it over your right shoulder (or maybe it’s the other way around… I can’t remember). If the toe of the shoe is pointing towards the door, you will marry in the next year! If not, you’re screwed? I’m not sure.
Eat something salty before bed: Go to bed thirsty and in your dreams a man will bring you water. This man will be your future husband!
Heart cutouts: In this tradition (my personal favorite), you cut out hearts and write a different name of a boy you like on each one *giiiiiggle*. You put these hearts under your pillow when you go to bed. In the morning you pull one out and that will be your future husband. Now girls, no cheating and writing the name of one boy on every heart! *uncontrollable gigglesssss*
So that, my friends, is your Polish lesson of the day. And if you think I wouldn’t stoop so low as to actually make heart cutouts and put them under my pillow tonight, you obviously don’t know how desperate I am!
