A Tradition for Your Eve of Christmas

Many of you took “Oplatki” or “Christmas Wafers.” Sharing the Oplatki on Christmas Eve Dinner is a  millennia old tradition that began in Poland, Slovakia, and Lithuania.

At the Christmas Eve Meal one of the wafers or, a part of one, are placed on each person’s plate. Before the meal, a prayer is said and then beginning with the father and mother of the house, a Sign of Peace is exchanged in the same manner and the wish of a Happy Christmas. Then each person, with wafer in hand, breaks off a part of the wafer from the other person and eats it. This continues until each person has greeted and eaten a part of the wafer of everyone present.

There are usually four wafers in the package: three white and one pink. The white are for the people at the Christmas Eve Dinner. The pink wafer is broken and a small piece is given to each of the animals in the house. On this night the animals are given special due. This is because of an old tradition which holds that since the animals were the first to welcome the Christ Child at His birth, they are given the blessing to talk on Christmas Eve Night.

What Traditions do you hold on this Holy Night for yourself and your family and are they about the reason of this season – the Love of God Made Flesh?

P.S. If you need a Prayer to begin The Christmas Eve Meal …

Begin with The Sign of the Cross.

All: We gather together on this holy night for the sacred and joyful Christmas Eve Vigil. We Celebrate the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The love of God made Flesh. Through the sharing of these holy wafers we praise God and forgive each other of all wrongs, real or imagined. As Christ loves and forgives us, so we love and forgive one another. Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to this family and all God’s People.  Amen.

Fr. Chester