Intercultural Communications

blue shimmering

I have to do an essay on a minority group living in Ireland, how they are intergrating into our communities etc.. A summary of their culture and how they celebrate our different days eg Christmas, St Pats etc.. Does anyone have good website addresses that I could go to and get information? I would be very grateful, I haven't decided which to do yet just want to find general information first and then either go and do - Indian, Polish, German, French.... Thanks

andala

I can help you with the Polish culture. Check out this thread

http://www.polishforums.com/

You'll find there info about our culture.

Good luck

blue shimmering

andala wrote: »

I can help you with the Polish culture. Check out this thread

http://www.polishforums.com/

You'll find there info about our culture.

Good luck

Hi there,

Brilliant, thank you very much, I am thinking of doing the Polish intergration into Irish society so this is very good! It is a group assignment and I may come back to you with some questions later if that would be ok?

We have to talk about the different symbols in Poland and Ireland and how they actually fit into our symbols eg St Pats day, shamrocks etc... The different buildings, the government in Poland, if there is a history behind Poland etc... There is a lot there to write about so I want to thank you very much for giving me this link!

Best wishes,

blue shimmering

andala

Hiya
Feel free to ask me any questions concerning Polish culture. I'll be happy to help.

blue shimmering

andala wrote: »

Hiya
Feel free to ask me any questions concerning Polish culture. I'll be happy to help.

Hi,

I will be meeting with the others in our group at the end of the week and we will decide what we are doing, we have more or less decided to do Polish Culture v's Irish, seeing what we have in common and also what differences there are - one thing that I did notice is that you have the biggest celebration dinner on Christmas Eve with eight or more courses, rather than on Christmas Day? Also that the centre of your meal is fish (Carp) I think, I will contact you next week with questions that I have and maybe you can help answer them for us?

I have known a few Polish people and have found them to be very nice, kind and also helpful as you are, thank you for offering to help me, I do appreciate it!

Best wishes,

Blue shimmering

andala

That's correct, Christmas Eve dinner is much bigger a celebration than the following two holiday days. The point is that the dinner should be a fastive one, so no meat is allowed. All kinds of fish (carp and herring mainly) are served. Traditionally there should be 12 dishes and there should be place for one more person than the number of participants in case a stray wanderer comes.

Contact me with whatever questions you may have, I'll answer them as best as I can

Copper

Polish Christmas dinner is great apart from the fact that there isn't supposed to be alcohol (think its sale is banned in Poland aswell around Christmas and they are fairly strict about it), so its a bit different from an Irish Christmas. Poles also have great days like Tlusty Czwartek that we don't have, and every day of the year is someones "name day", like today is Leona or Gabriela's name day I think. On your girlfriends/boyfriends name day you look after them and maybe buy them something small.

blue shimmering

Copper wrote: »

Polish Christmas dinner is great apart from the fact that there isn't supposed to be alcohol (think its sale is banned in Poland aswell around Christmas and they are fairly strict about it), so its a bit different from an Irish Christmas. Poles also have great days like Tlusty Czwartek that we don't have, and every day of the year is someones "name day", like today is Leona or Gabriela's name day I think. On your girlfriends/boyfriends name day you look after them and maybe buy them something small.

Brilliant, keep it flowing, the more I can find out the better - I do think they have a good point about banning alcohol at Christmas because it does seem to cause a lot of heart ache here! What is Tlusty Czwartek - would it be a celebration like St Patricks day and what day is it on? that thing about girlfriend/boyfriend name day is a lovely idea too, does it extend to married couples?

andala

Wow, first of all, alcohol sale is not banned at Christmas. Sure you may have a problem buying it if you want to do it late on Christmas Eve as shops usually close at about 5pm that day (staff wants to have a Christmas Eve dinner as well). Tłusty Czwartek (lit. Greasy Thursday) is the last Thursday before The Great Lent. I believe the idea is similar to your Pancake Day but we eat "pączki" i.e. donoughts



And on the Tuesday before the Ash Wednesday we have something called "Śledzik" ( Herring Day) - the last day of fun before the Lent begins.

Name day is not only a Polish tradition, it's also popular in Greece or Sweden. The idea is that each day is ascribed to a few names and people who have this name celebrate it. Depending on a region of Poland, name day can get more popular than birthday. It is well known that efficiency at work is going down after popular name days Today Piotr (Peter) can celebrate his name day.

We love having fun so we also have Andrzejki (Andrew's name day), on 29th Nov. Not only is it the last day of fun before Advent. It is a magical day when you need to do work some home magic It is common to pour hot wax through a keyhole (not the one in the door - the one in old keys!) to a bowl of water. When the wax cools, the shape it took is your prophecy for the forecoming year. Also, if you're not married yet, there's plenty of ways to see how lucky you will get this year.

blue shimmering

andala wrote: »

Wow, first of all, alcohol sale is not banned at Christmas. Sure you may have a problem buying it if you want to do it late on Christmas Eve as shops usually close at about 5pm that day (staff wants to have a Christmas Eve dinner as well). Tłusty Czwartek (lit. Greasy Thursday) is the last Thursday before The Great Lent. I believe the idea is similar to your Pancake Day but we eat "pączki" i.e. donoughts



And on the Tuesday before the Ash Wednesday we have something called "Śledzik" ( Herring Day) - the last day of fun before the Lent begins.

Name day is not only a Polish tradition, it's also popular in Greece or Sweden. The idea is that each day is ascribed to a few names and people who have this name celebrate it. Depending on a region of Poland, name day can get more popular than birthday. It is well known that efficiency at work is going down after popular name days Today Piotr (Peter) can celebrate his name day.

We love having fun so we also have Andrzejki (Andrew's name day), on 29th Nov. Not only is it the last day of fun before Advent. It is a magical day when you need to do work some home magic It is common to pour hot wax through a keyhole (not the one in the door - the one in old keys!) to a bowl of water. When the wax cools, the shape it took is your prophecy for the forecoming year. Also, if you're not married yet, there's plenty of ways to see how lucky you will get this year.

Hi Andala,

Those "pączki" look absolutely gorgeous, I would love to taste them sometime - a friend of mine went out to Poland on holiday with her daughter and husband and she was really impressed with the peoples hospitality, how open and kind they were. She went to the concentration camps too and said that reading about it is not the same as actually being there - it was such a sad, gloomy place but the history was all around it! She also said that really it would be impossible to go there without going to see what happened and just being there brought home what terrible things had happened to all those people so many years ago!

Anyway, we will be bring this into our essay because it is history that moulds us all in life, just to think that not that long ago there was fighting, killing etc in the North of Ireland and thank God they have sorted most of it out! I was informed that Poland is mostly Catholic, the same as Ireland and also that the late Pope John Paul was from Poland? I do think we will have plenty to write about because your country seems to be seeped in culture as Ireland is!

Thanks again and when I have any questions I will send them to you!

Best wishes,

blue shimmering