Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends!

To those of you who are in Poland, are you doing anything special? Are you preparing the whole nine yards of turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and pies and ham and green beans and corn and freshly baked rolls?

And speaking of pies, how would you translate “pie” into Polish. My dictionaries say that it’s either ciasto or placek. But that’s not entirely true, is it now? Ciasto is simply “cake” and placek is also “cake,” even if a flat one. Neither one gets even close to describing the true nature of “pie.”
I simply said “paj” in Polish and people seemed to understand. At least the people I met in Gdańsk.

But anyway, let’s leave this profound “pie” problem for another time and cover the rest of your Thanksgiving feast.

• indyk (masc., pl. indyki) – turkey
• szynka (fem., pl. szynki) – ham
• ziemniak (masc., pl. ziemniaki) – potato, though in some parts of Poland you can hear the German version “kartofel” (pl. kartofle) being used
• fasola szparagowa (fem., pl. fasole szparagowe, though this plural would be rarely, if ever used) – green bean
• kukurydza (fem., pl. kukurydze, though as above, this plural would be rarely used) – corn
• galaretka (fem., pl. galaretki) – jello (but be careful with this one, in Polish “galaretka” means the savory kind, too and it’s not as disgusting as it sounds, OK?)
• sałatka (fem., pl. sałatki) – salad
• nadzienie (neuter, pl. nadzienia) – stuffing

And finally:

• Dzień Dziękczynienia or Święto Dziękczynienia – Thanksgiving

And here something funny happens. Depending on which Polish phrase you use, be careful, because they have different grammatical genders.
Dzień Dziękczynienia is masculine (literally – day of thanksgiving)
and Święto Dziękczynienia is neuter (literally – holiday/feast/celebration of thanksgiving).

Now go and enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner. And to our friends not in the US - tell me about important holidays in your countries and I’ll cover them, too. In Polish, naturally. Kartofle and all…