How the East Was Won: Christmas Eve in Poland

Warsaw—When I was a child, Christmas Eve had an eternal, unchanging quality. My mother cooked carp for the traditional meatless supper. One was supposed to eat 12 other courses, but by the time of my childhood—the Sixties— this was only a memory. I did, however, always set an extra place at the table, for a guest who always came late: only at the age of ten or 11 did I begin to wonder why the appearance of St. Nicholas was preceded by the disappearance of my grandfather. He would say he was going to fetch a paper, even though newsstands were closed at that time of night. When I grew older I joined everybody at midnight Mass, and it was solemnly explained to me why in such times the last words of the traditional hymn were changed to “Bring us back, O God, our free fatherland.”

This year, at five thousand zloties per kilo, many families could hardly afford the traditional fish. The mood

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Radek Sikorski

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Warsaw—When I was a child, Christmas Eve had an eternal, unchanging quality. My mother cooked carp for the traditional meatless supper. One was supposed to eat 12 other courses, but by the time of my childhood—the Sixties— this was only a memory. I did, however, always set an extra place at the table, for a guest who always came late: only at the age of ten or 11 did I begin to wonder why the appearance of St. Nicholas was preceded by the disappearance of my grandfather. He would say he was going to fetch a paper, even though newsstands were closed at that time of night. When I grew older I joined everybody at midnight Mass, and it was solemnly explained to me why in such times the last words of the traditional hymn were changed to “Bring us back, O God, our free fatherland.”

This year, at five thousand zloties per kilo, many families could hardly afford the traditional fish. The mood