[Jasiu]

Have a Happy Birthday, Karen!


In Polish (from my wife): Sto lat! Sto lat! Niech zyje, zyje nam! (Translation: May she live a hundred years! And many more, and many more!). This is the official Polish "Happy Birthday to you" equivalent.

[momraine]

Happy birthday Karen!!!
Hey, while we are on the subject anyone know how kids celebrate birthday's in Poland?

[yusen]

Thank you for the Birthday wishes..

From what I have heard,, Children celebrate Names day!! Not sure exactly what this means...

[momraine]

Thanks, I know that they do that in Russia. In Russia, just about everyone is named for a Saint of some kind (in the Russian Orthodox tradition) and each saint has a day that is set aside to honor them. For the children in my daughter's orphanage, they had a party for the name day. Birthday's were not really celebrated, but the name day was. The only problem was my translator had chosen American names for his kids and so had to find the closest equivilant for thier name days. LOL I think it would be harder to do that in the US where unusual names are so common.

[yusen]

That is interesting though,, Because I dont know of any Saints named Anita,Mario, or Viktoria,, this does raise an eyebrow for me,, I will ask them how they celebrated thier birthdays.!

[Jasiu]

Anita's name day is most likely August 24th (there is no saint, but there was a blessed Anita Cantieri)

Mario (Mariusz) has a few choices: January 19th, February 4th, February 9th, and 31st of December. There is a St Mariusz, who died a death of a martyr with his whole family.

For Viktoria: 23 of December or 20th of May.

You may want to ask what their name days have been so far.

[momraine]

Here is a listing of names and thier feast days.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~polwgw/namelist.html#polish
I was also wondering because I have a picture of our little guy blowing out candles on a cake. There are four candles, which hear would mean it was his fourth birthday, but since he recently turned six, I am wondering if it's different in Poland.

[Jasiu]

Birthdays are also celebrated in Poland and that is when one gets the candles the same way as in the U.S. For name days there are no candles but there is also a cake. I will try to find a good website explaining all this too.

[momraine]

Do they do candles in the amount of the age like we do here? If so the pictures I have are two years ago, since there are four candles on the cake. Though a friend did point out that perhaps in an orphanage they would sometimes be short of candles so it might after all be his sixth birthday. Oh well, I was just curious.

[Jasiu]

It is the same, I would guess that the amount of candles would indicate the photograph is from 2 years ago.

[LisArno]

Happy Birthday!!!! Last quiet birthday before you get your three "presents" in a couple weeks

[yusen]

But,, Like I just told my Mother,, I am getting the best presents I have ever gotten!!!

[LisArno]

My three presents will also arrive a couple weeks after my birthday.

Kasia will get her presents for her "unbirthday".

[Jasiu]

Kasia has a chance to get her presents for her Nameday though (her name day is 25th of November, the day of St. Katherine of Alexandria).

Originally Posted by LisArno

Kasia will get her presents for her "unbirthday".

[momraine]

Here is to everyone getting thier most precious gifts soon!