I really appreciate this contest. Last week I was asking others to write about their traditions and festivals and publish it in "Steemit Weekly", but I've never had the opportunity to say something about my own culture.

_source

As Im one of the very few active Polish users on Steemit and Polish culture is not so well known, I believe my post might surprise you. I'm going to share with you twenty fun facts about Poland:

---

Courteous " no, thank you"

Imagine that your colleague wants to share with you the chocolate or you are visiting friends and they offer you lunch. You are hungry, but according to Polish tradition, you should say "no, thank you". If they offered you something just to be polite, they will never ask again. If they will insist, you can agree.

Some people are saying " no, thank you" twice so if you want to give something to your guest, you should insist at least three times.

Replying for the first question "yes" might be considered rude. By saying "no", we actually say " we don't want to make any troubles". So everyone is obligated to deny at least once when someone offers beverage.

---

Being noisy is inappropriate

That is enormous difference between Poland and South America and personally, the thing I cannot used to yet.

Poland is very quiet. People on the streets don't talk loudly, talking in public transport is considered to be rude unless you are basically whispering. Nobody listens to the music in public places, even in the park or on the beach. Nobody is making any noise at night.

If you would check some Tik Tok videos in the public transport, I can guarantee you that someone will come to you and ask you if you cannot afford for the headphones, if you will sing quietly being on the street, people will look at you like you are after some drugs.

It's prohibited to behave noisy from 22.00 to 6.00 and believe me, loud music or sometimes even vacuuming 5 minutes after 22.00 is risky. Neighbours might call the police and you can be in some troubles.

---

Feeding guests is obligatory

We show the love and care by feeding others, so each time we have guests we try to serve as much food as we can. When host offers you the meal, you should say "no, thank you" at first, but then you should agree to eat at least a bit, even if you are not hungry. Otherwise host can think you are disrespectful.

---

Taking off the shoes

We are not using shoes at home and we expect our guests to take off their shoes as well. You can be barefoot, in the socks or wear some special home flip flops.

Its not only Polish tradition. Similar habits are common in Japan, Norway or Sweden. I believe, it's very practical - that way it's easier to keep the house clean, especially when it snowy or rainy outside.
I do love to be barefoot!

---

Being always punctual

You should never be late for the meeting more than five minutes and even if you are late a minute or two, you should apologize for it. We are very punctual: when the bus is late 15 minutes, people call the company to ask what happened and when you buy something online, you know exactly when the product will be at home.

I used to book the meeting with friends one month in advance and I never needed to call them to confirm the date. They were expecting me like we would talk about the meeting yesterday.

Here in Argentina I used to buy things online (I dont do it any more) and my delivery were postponed three-four times in a row, usually last minute. I was calling the company to ask why they are late two hours and they were replying that actually they wont come today at all... That was always a big shock to me.

In some way I do admire "tranquilo" culture which doesn't make you stressed when you are just few minutes late, but from the other side, I do miss the punctuality.

---

We don't smile on the street

This element of Polish culture I don't like at all. Smiling or complimenting people is considered in Poland as flirting only and flirting is considered as something bad. You cannot be too nice to the strangers and you shouldn't look too happy. If someone would dance or sing on the street, everyone would think that he is crazy; if you would smile and say simple 'good day' to the guy on the street, you could be even punched in the face... We are learned to keep all the emotions deep inside which is the total opposite of latino culture. I hate it, so Im really happy that now I live in the country which celebrates joy and cordial attitude towards strangers.

---

Using the phone in the company is rude

Sure, when you are waiting in the line or spending time with the closest family, you can use your phone but ONLY SILENCED. Watching youtube without the headphones will always be considered as very rude, even in your own house.

When you meet with friends, you should skip using the phone at all. Its very rude to not give your full attention to the person you are spending the time with

---

Offensive compliments

Its a big difference between Poland and Venezuela. In Venezuela, one of the compliments is "you have a really big ass" as the big buttocks are considered more attractive.

In Poland the compliment is "what a small, shapely butt". Saying "big ass" is equal to say "you are fat" in the most offensive way.

My boyfriend called my ass big in one of the first dates and I was ready to punch him in the face. Luckily, I didn't 😅

---

Christmas Eve is the big thing

_{Christmas Eve 2020 - not all the meals are on the table yet, as some were served directly on the plates}


Tradition says we should feast during the Christmas Eve until the dinner. Dinner is eaten when the first star appears on the sky, but it's the middle of the winter in Poland so it's getting dark quite early. Usually meals are served at 16.00/17.00

Dinner is always made of twelve meals, mostly vegetarian but fish is allowed too. We don't eat red meat or poultry that day.

We are always leaving one extra plate on the table. Tradition says that nobody should be alone that night, so if some lonely neighbour or homeless person will knock the door, we should host them. Extra plate is the symbol that we are ready to do it.

---

Painting eggs on Eastern

We paint boiled eggs and making beautiful decorations of it. Traditionally eggs were boiled with the natural colorants:

• with the onion to make it brown
• with the red cabbage to make it purple
• with the beetroots to make it pink
• with curcuma to make it yellow

Then some shapes could be carved in the shell.
Now it's more popular to use non-toxic paint

_source

---

Fermenting food

As originally we didn't have citrus in Poland, for hundreds years the main source of vitamin C was fermented food.

Food fermentation is a tradition which survived centuries and still is very alive. We ferment cucumbers, cabbage, beetroots, even mushrooms and tomatoes.

Fermented food is available in any shop but in many houses people ferment it on their own.

---

Mushrooms right from the forest

You probably know champs, portobello or shiitake, but there are hundreds of edible mushrooms around the world.

Many people are going early in the morning to the forest to collect their own mushrooms. It's very dangerous and not recommended to do it if you don't have any experience. Although there are over 50 kinds of edible mushrooms in Poland, there is also plenty of poisonous types. Some of them are very similar to each others.

Few of the mushrooms are so poisonous that you can be intoxicated just by touching them. When you will eat it, you might most possibly die. That's why collecting mushrooms from the forest is illegal in many countries, including our neighbours - Germany.

---

Names day

This tradition slowly dies, but the generation 50+ and elder still celebrates it. Besides the birthday, some people celebrate the day assigned to their name.

Each day has four-five names assigned to it. When it comes to your name day, you should make a party and expect gifts. That celebration came to Poland from the east. It was quite popular during the communism (until 1989).

---

We complain a lot

When you ask English speaking person "how are you?", they will reply " I'm fine", when you will ask the same question Spanish speaking person, they will reply "todo bien" ("all good"). Polish replies always "stara bieda", which means " poorly, like always".

We do love complain about the weather, politics, our finances, health and everything else. Complaining is like our national sport.

Well, even right now I'm complaining that Polish people are complaining, am I not?

---

We feel always safe

When I was living in Kraków, I wasn't closing the door to the apartment when I was going out for the short shopping or for a walk with the dog.

Sure, if I was planning to go out for longer, I was locking my house, but with the short absence I didn't feel the need to do it. Also, when we were at home, doors remained always unlocked so everyone could enter anytime.

Poland is very safe, no matter if you live in the village, center of the city or some lower class district. Robberies happens, like everywhere but are very rare, so our habits are a bit different.

Oh, and we don't have that doors which requires to open it with the key every time. If you closed the door without using the key, you can open it from outside without the key as well. You can't even imagine how many times I left home in Argentina and forgot my keys...

---

Customers are always right

If you ordered the mattress online and you received the product in another colour, the company has to bring you another product or give back your money. If you bought the device which is not working, you get 100% refund. If you don't like the service - you complain - you will be apologized and you will get some gift.

Thinking in Polish way cost me a lot of troubles in the past. I remember when in Bolivia I went to fix my gameboy. They fixed it but then asked me to pay double what I agreed for. I didn't have that much money so... they destroyed my gameboy even more and now nobody is able to fix it again. In Poland the company could be sued for such a behaviour and forced to buy me brand new gameboy + pay extra for my time. I had to learn that what is regular customer behaviour in my motherland might not work in another parts of the world.

---

Fat thursday

The last Thursday of the Carnival is called "fat thursday". Its a day when people eat the doughnuts and another fat things whole the day.

People share in social medias how many doughnuts they ate and believe me, it can be as much as 10-15 per person.
You can imagine why it's my favourite day in the year!

---

Marzanna

On the first day of spring we used to make a big, human size puppet, called Marzanna and then burn it or drown it in the river.
Marzanna represents winter which we want to get rid off. That tradition is very popular among kids: kindergartens and schools are preparing Marzannas with the children, but you don't see many adults to do it

---

We don't use dubbing

Dubbing is fine in the cartoons but not in the regular movies. In the movies we use subtitles or... Lector.

Lector is a narrator which reads all the sentences said by the actors. Its like reading the book - in the back you can hear original voice but its very quiet.