Soooo…. The shortest day of the year is behind us (that’s a good thing, at least in my book, I like to see daylight for a bit more than just a few hours), Christmas is behind us (that’s a good thing too - no more carp for at least another year, yay!). Now there’s only New Year’s Eve to look forward too. And what else? Loosing all the weight we’ve gained during the holiday season. Making New Year’s resolutions (postanowienia noworoczne), which we won’t stick to anyway. But who does? So what else is there to look forward to? Spring cleaning and mycie okien (window washing)? Ugh…
Nah, the only one of the bunch that I look forward to is the days getting longer now.
When I was a kid, I heard this saying that they’re getting longer like this:
It means, more or less, that for Christmas – like a hen’s step, for New Year’s - like a ram’s leap. Which means: very little (though I can’t imagine just how big an average hen’s step would be) and quite a lot – that’s referring to the poor ram leaping, of course.
My friend just gave me a long and interesting (surprise, surprise!) lecture about the ancient pagan Slavic traditions that incorporated themselves neatly into the Christian reality. These hens a-stepping and rams a-leaping supposedly had something to do with it. You know, winter solstice… In all honesty, what the Slavs (Słowianie) were doing wasn’t all that different from the stuff practiced by the Celts, and the Vikings, and other old cultures.
But why dwell on old traditions, when we have new traditions to embrace and uphold? After-Christmas sales! According to the site cogdziezaile, poświąteczne przeceny (after-Christmas sales) have already begun. And just like elsewhere in the world, the stores in Poland will do their best to convince customers to part with their hard-earned cash.
And here’s a list in Polish of what (co), where (gdzie) and how much (za ile) off you can expect.
