The International Christmas Eve in Legnica already this week

Next Sunday, 18 December in Legnica, the XVth International Christmas Eve will take place. It is an annual meeting organized by Stowarzyszenie Kobiety Europy (Women of Europe Association), as well as other organizations that have to do with national and ethnic minorities living in the territory of the city. The meeting will traditionally take place in the Academy of Knights in the part where the Legnica Culture Centre is located. The meeting starts at 5PM.

The main idea of the meeting is to show the folk traditions and customs that accompany the Christmas time when it comes to some minorities, the percentage amount of which is quite high in Legnica. Most of the minorities’ representatives are descendants of those who arrived in the Legnica region in the 19940s. Some of them came there because of their own will, but there were also those who had been forced by illegal decisions of the contemporaneous communist country. Nowadays they want to get to know each other better, integrate and show everything that is basic for their existence – the language, culture and history.

The following minorities will sit by the Sunday table full of Christmas dishes: Romanies, Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, Jews, Greeks, Turkish, Polish (hosts of the meeting) and Lemkos. Our nationality will be represented by the Lemko Association together with the youth from Kyczera Song and Dance Lemko Ensemble.

On the decorated tables there are always dishes which best present the Christmas tradition of a particilar minority. On the Lemko table, for sure there will be kieselytsia, dumplings, mushrooms, cabbage and jucha – for drinking. The meeting is opened by Legnica’s host – in the recent years it was the president Tadeusz Krzakowski. Then, each of the minorities biefly present themselves and the food prepared. The participants share wafer (in the case of the Eastern Church people – dora). Further, the guests try the different dishes. Apart from that, each of the groups performs Christmas carols in their mother tongue. Last year, Lemko ethnic minority not only sang, but also accompanied other minorities to their performances.

Here you can see the photoreport from last year’s event.