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
Bloody Christmas Eve in Ochotnica Dolna Bloody Christmas Eve in Ochotnica Dolna Bloody Christmas Eve in Ochotnica Dolna – symbolic name given to pacification of the Ochotnica Dolna village (currently Lesser Poland voivodeship, Nowy Targ County), made by German Occupiers in the last months of World War II. 23 of December 1944 members of SS murdered 56 residents of Ochotnica Dolna and partially burnt the village. The name "Bloody Christmas Eve" refers to Eve of the Christmas, that previously was celebrated on 23rd of December. On December 22, 1944, Germans arrived in Ochotnica Dolna, who within the so-called the food campaign robbed the village. Despite the