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Traditional Polish holiday foods and music were enjoyed
YOUNGSTOWN
The holiday culture of Polish people everywhere, past and present, is kept alive locally by the annual Wigilia 2016 – A Traditional Polish Christmas.
Hosted Sunday by the Polish Arts Club of Youngstown, the event at the Brier Hill Cultural Center, housed in the former St. Casimir Polish Roman Catholic Church, recreates the Christmas Eve traditions and dinner embraced by Poles around the world, said Sandra Cika, president of the Polish Arts Club.
St. Casimir Parish is itself steeped in local Polish culture and history on Jefferson Street in Youngstown’s Brier Hill area. St. Casimir, closed in February 2014 by the Youngstown Diocese, served the Polish community, which settled in Brier Hill to work in the steel mills, Cika said.
“The Wigilia dinner is traditionally held on Christmas Eve as the culmination of Advent, a period of fasting and waiting and watching and anticipating and preparing the heart and home for the coming of Christ,” Cika said.
The event featured dishes such as oplatek, a wafer or bread that has been blessed by a priest, mushroom or borscht soup, herring, fried or boiled fish, pirogi, poppyseed and noodles, fruit compote and a variety of Polish pastries.
Other traditions include starting the meal at sundown, breaking and sharing of the oplatek, and the setting of an empty plate for a deceased loved one or an unexpected visitor. The meal is meatless in honor of the farm animals that witnessed the birth of Christ, said Cika.
Sunday’s program, which brought to a close the Polish Arts Club’s 81st season, included a social hour, the dinner, entertainment and singing of koledy or Polish carols, led by the St. Casimir Choir, which stayed together after the church was closed.
The choir, under the direction of Damian Tarantino, sings at special events and is invited to perform monthly at Holy Apostles Roman Catholic Parish Sts. Peter and Paul Church.
“Keeping the choir is wonderful, and having the Wigilia gives us a chance to come back to our Polish roots to celebrate the spirit of Christmas past and present,” Tarantino said.
The purpose of the Polish Arts Club, founded in 1935 by Florence Turowski, is to disseminate information about Polish culture in the Mahoning Valley and beyond.
To that end, the Wigilia, originally for members only, has been opened to the public. About 80 attended Sunday’s celebration, and the facility can be rented, Cika said.