On Christmas Eve we visited the Christmas market held in the main square and ate Polish pierogies after realizing we would not be making our annual traditional pierogies from scratch. Of course, everyone thought they were not as tasty as the Wyzga recipe with farmers cheese filling.
The Church of St Mary, constructed in the 1300-1500's is where we attended Midnight Mass. From the Hejnal Tower every hour, a trumpet call is played which abruptly stops in remembrance of a medieval trumpeter, who was shot in the neck with an arrow while sounding an alarm of invaders attacking the city.
The wall above the altar opens up displaying one of the most ornate altars in all of Europe.
In an attempt to recreate the traditional polish Christmas eve dinner we had to find a grocery store that was open on Christmas eve. We found it very difficult to navigate the streets whose names all began with the letter "K", and had at least 14 characters in them with very few vowels. We sadly had to settle for frozen Pierogies, canned soup, and store bought Christmas cookies! We also forgot the traditional communion wafer used to "break bread" with one another as we share Christmas greetings.
Waiting for midnight mass we continued our ongoing tournament of Settlers of Cataan. Jesse started keeping score last spring on his blackberry and is currently in the lead.
We made sure to arrive 40 minutes early for midnight mass, and were fortunate to have seats and not stand in the aisles as did many. The Polish choir started singing about 15 minutes before the mass and I (steve) was surprised at how many of the tunes I remembered. But when the first chords of "Wsrod Nocnej Ciszy" signalled the beginning of the service, a wave of memories from my past 50 years swept over me. All I could think was, "Dad would so want to be here!" It was powerful and moving. I scanned the faces of those around me, young and old, poor and fairly well off, and tried to consider what these people had lived through the past 50-60 years, and the meaning for them in this simple carol:
Angels from heaven sang a thrilling psalm Waking the shepherds from their drowsy calm Rise ye shepherds, hurry onward Greet the newborn Son of David King Emmanuel
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