Day 4 - A Polish Custom from my Past

Day 4...I would like to tell you about oplatek (this l, in Polish, has a diagonal dash through the middle and is pronouncend like a "w"...so this is pronounced Oh-PWAH- tek. (IN POlish the second to the last syllable is always accented.
We did this most Christmases when I was a child in Wisconsin. I went to the Catholic school and we could order the wafers from the nuns who sent away for them. You can still order these online. Just "google" order oplatek.

We did this usually, I think, on Xmas Eve. Before our meal...(and sometimes it was Christmas Day Dinner), my dad would take a fresh piece of this wafer from the package and break a peace off and say something nice and then pass it to another person, who would break off a piece for himself, and pass it along and so forth until everyone at the table had a piece.

See...
http://www.aquinasandmore.com/catholic-gifts/Oplatki-Christmas-Wafers--Oplatek/sku/22393

and http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/PolandBorderSurnames/2005-10/1130262717
for history of this custom.

Today's song is "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming." I chose this song because this post is about a Polish tradition which reminded me of my high school days (I grew up in a very Polish community and went to an all girls' Catholic school taught by nuns.)) and one Christmas during an assembly, our prinicipal announced that all of the nuns, our teachers....there must have been 30 nuns at that school...had a gift for us: the gift of a song. They must have been practicing for weeks! It was "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" and they gathered together by the piano in front of the audience of 400 girls all in navy blue jumpers with white blouses...they stood in 3 rows on
graduated risers so you could see everyone's face. They harmonized in part and it was beautiful. The lighting in the gymnasium was magical that afternoon...lights kind of dim...Christmas lights in places. Maybe some red poinsettias here and there.
This was the first time in my life where I was comletely and utterly carried away by the beauty of a song ..the way it was sung by all those nuns. I was transported. It was utterly amazing...that feeling that I had as they sang this.