Next: 24 Dec 2026
Wigilia
The Polish Christmas Eve supper: twelve meatless dishes that begin when the first star appears.
What is eaten for Wigilia
Wigilia begins when the first star is seen. The family breaks and shares a thin wafer called opłatek and exchanges wishes. An extra place is laid for an unexpected guest. The supper has no meat and, by custom, twelve dishes. It opens with clear beetroot soup with small mushroom dumplings, or with mushroom soup. Carp follows, fried or in jelly, with herring, pierogi filled with cabbage and mushrooms, and cabbage with peas. It ends with poppy seed cake, kutia and a compote of dried fruit.
The dishes
BorschtClear red barszcz opens the supper.
UszkaSmall mushroom dumplings served in the soup.PierogiFilled with cabbage and mushrooms for the meatless meal.
KutiaWheat, poppy seed and honey, served in the east of Poland.
KompotDrink of stewed dried fruit.
Christmas waferOpłatek, broken and shared before anyone eats.Also part of it, and being written: Carp (Fried or in jelly, the main dish.), Poppy seed roll (Makowiec, the Christmas cake.).
Written by the Thali desk with AI assistance. Background: "Wigilia" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Uszka: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Vegalabs, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Borscht: Juerg Vollmer, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Kutia: Віщун, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kompot: Biso, CC BY 3.0, source
- Christmas wafer: No machine-readable author provided. Julo assumed (based on copyright, Public domain, source