My favorite holiday

     Christmas is my  favorite holiday,so I want to write how we celebrate Christmas Eve.

      Christmas Eve is the day before Christmas Day. Christmas Eve is celebrated on December 24. That day is one of the most important days in Christian’s life. Polish families start preparing for this holiday long time before this day comes. The most important tasks include preparing good food, decorating Christmas tree, celebrating dinner and going to the church.

      In Poland, traditional Christmas Eve meal includes twelve different dishes. That day we prepare food with out meat. The main dish is carp. We also prepare lot of different salads, fish soups, Borscht, Pierogis, Golabki, and pickled herrings. Before eating everyone exchanges Christmas greetings with each other by giving a piece of Christmas wafer (Oplatki) .Every one has to try every single dish to avoid bad luck for next year.

      On the Christmas Eve almost every Polish family place and decorate Christmas trees in their houses. We decorate the tree with gingerbread human figures, animal figures and colorful ornaments. We also put on the tree lights to symbolize the new coming life of Jesus Christ. One of other customs of Christmas Eve is giving gifts to each other .The gifts are given when the first star is noticed on the sky. That star identifies with the star of Bethlehem. This is the most interesting part of Christmas Eve for everyone, especially for children.

         Later people attend Midnight Mass to solemnly celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We spend about two hours in the church, we sing and pray.

      Christmas Eve is one of the most important holydays .This is family holyday, because everyone get together and spend time with each other. This is the most wonderful time of the year. People enjoy preparing food for Christmas; they also like to decorate Christmas tree and eating special dinner with their family, and going to the church to celebrate Jesus birth. This extraordinary day ends in church where prayers are shared with priest and other Catholics.