Customs and Festivals in Poland
Talk about Polish customs and festivals: learn the words for Christmas, Easter and New Year, and how to say what people do to celebrate.
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Free, interactive practice on the words and structures the examiner keeps asking for.
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Customs and festivals
Poland has many customs and festivals through the year. You need the vocabulary for the main ones, like Boże Narodzenie (Christmas) and Wielkanoc (Easter), and the words for what people do, like świętować (to celebrate). Polish uses the Latin alphabet with a few extra marks, so read each word carefully to get them right.
Words for festivals
Learn each Polish word with its English meaning.
Christmas and other festivals
These festivals fall at different times of the year.
Getting the marks right
In Polish, to celebrate is świętować, and a Christmas carol is a kolęda. Small marks change the sound of a letter, so take care to write them correctly.
Match the festival to the English
- Boże Narodzenie
- Wielkanoc
- Sylwester
- Wigilia
- Christmas
- Easter
- New Year Eve
- Christmas Eve
Match the word to the English
- prezent
- choinka
- kolęda
- pisanki
- a present
- a Christmas tree
- a Christmas carol
- painted Easter eggs
What Boże Narodzenie means in Polish
What does Boże Narodzenie mean?
- Christmas.
- Easter.
- New Year.
- Birthday.
Which are festivals?
Select the TWO words that are festivals.
- Wielkanoc.
- Sylwester.
- prezent.
- choinka.
Polish builds the sentence its own way
The festival words become sentences with lubię (I like) and jest (is). Watch what happens to the word that follows lubię: - Lubię choinkę i prezenty = "I like the Christmas tree and the presents". choinka becomes choinkę after lubię. That ending change is the accusative case, which Polish uses for the thing you like. - Wigilia jest w grudniu = "Christmas Eve is in December". A different change: after w, grudzień (December) becomes grudniu. That one is the locative, used for when or where something happens.
After lubię, a noun changes its ending
After lubię, a noun changes its ending. Which of these says "I like the Christmas tree and the presents"?
- Lubię choinkę i prezenty
- Lubię choinka i prezenty
- Choinka i prezenty
- Wigilia jest w grudniu
Order the year
Put the festivals in order through the year, earliest first.
- Wielkanoc, Easter in spring
- Wigilia, on 24 December
- Boże Narodzenie, on 25 December
- Sylwester, on 31 December
Complete the Polish
In Poland, _____ Narodzenie means Christmas and _____ means Easter. On Christmas Eve, called _____, families share a wafer and eat together. Children hope for a _____ under the choinka, the Christmas tree. New Year Eve is called _____.
Spot the two festivals
Tap the TWO words that are festivals.
- Wielkanoc
- Sylwester
- prezent
- choinka
- kolęda
Which festival?
Choose the Polish festival that matches each situation.
- Families share a wafer and eat a special supper on 24 December
- People paint eggs called pisanki in spring
- People celebrate at midnight on the last night of the year
Write in Polish
Write three or four sentences in Polish about a festival in Poland. Say which festival it is, when it happens, and what people do. Use festival vocabulary such as Boże Narodzenie, Wielkanoc, prezent and świętować.
- Name the festival in Polish
- Say when it happens
- Say what people do, using świętować