Christmas dinner most Poles spend the day feasting with their family. The Christmas meal is elaborate, served in the evening on 24 December, offering large quantities of food. This Christmas Eve meal is called Wigilia. After the first star appears in the sky, everyone shares the Christmas wafer (opłatek) and wishes good things for the coming year. Then supper begins. The meal is meatless, honouring Catholic tradition. Many households also prepare a great variety of special Christmas dishes, typically numbering 12 in honor of the 12 apostles. Dishes include: stuffed carp, fried carp, herring in wine sauce, herring in cream sauce, fruit
Christmas traditions and dance around them to the playing of bagpipes. Bannock cakes made of oatmeal are traditionally eaten at Christmas. Christmas in Ireland is the largest celebration on the calendar in Ireland and lasts from December 24 to January 6, although many view December 8 as being the start of the season; and schools used to close on this day, making it a traditional Christmas shopping time, this is no longer compulsory and many stay open. Almost the entire workforce is finished by lunchtime on Christmas Eve, or often a few days beforehand. Christmas Day and St. Stephen's Day are public