> Thanksgiving is not a holiday I grew up with, so I've only ever paid
> scant attention to it - no more than I *had to* (like going to the bank
> and PO a day before or forget it till Friday following).
Yeah... Maybe next year I'll finally remember to organize some food before
Thanksgiving instead of finding out all the restaurants are closed and eating
bread...
> In Poland of
> my childhood and teens, we had something like "harvest festival"
> ("dozynki" - gathering of last strands of grain), but we all thought it
> was something contrived by the Communist government seeking to promote
> the "rule of workers and peasants"
Really? I've always thought it was older than the communist government... We
still had them when I was a kid (later we moved from a village to a city, so I
don't know if villages continued to have them).
> BTW, someone sent me some info on Polish Christmas customs, which said
> they differed in different parts of the country. They sure did, but the
> website never mentioned the one I grew up with - that the gifts were
> brought by the First Star of 24th.
At least one side of my family had that one too. Really, we had a combination:
On I think Dec 6th, which is St. Nicholas Day in Poland, we got presents from
our immediate family "from St. Nicholas", and then for Christmas we all visited
our grandparents and got presents from our extended families "from the Star".
The Christmas Eve dinner started when the kids saw the first star (really
annoying when it's cloudy), and we got to open presents after dinner (according
to my friends you do in the next morning in the US - is that right?).
It really is sort of strange that all the fun of Christmas was actually on the
day before, and then on actual Christmas Day we just ate leftovers and had to go
to church .
> A subtle reminder that the same star
> announced the "gift to mankind" of the baby Jesus (if one's beliefs go
> that way). Nevertheless, the gifts were dropped off under the tree, not
> under a stable trough... :)
Is that a custom anywhere??
Weronika
--
Weronika Patena
Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA
http://vole.stanford.edu/weronika
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