[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Christmas customs of Volhynians?

[Bill Fife]

I guess many of our Christmases were similar.

We would attend church on Christmas eve and then go home to a decorated 
tree.  Always wondered why my father did not attend church that evening.

We also celebrated Christmas Eve, with one gift each.  Although we now have 
turkey at Christmas, we still have a large dish of Holopchi (cabbage rolls) 
on the table.  We make them with ground beef and pork mixed with the rice. 
No toothpicks, just roll them up and poke each end in with a finger.

Although I love the old poppy seed Kuchen I have a hard time getting my wife 
to make it.  Got a good recipe for it from Otto Schienke a couple of years 
ago.  My wife says it too much trouble.  Guess that is what I get for 
marrying an English girl rather then a German one :)

Bill Fife

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <rlyster at telusplanet.net>
To: <GVLESS at aol.com>
Cc: <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 8:30 PM
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Christmas customs of Volhynians?


> We celebrated Christmas Eve...all would hurray and finish chores so we 
> could
> gather.  Traditonal supper was Holopchi (German cabbage rolls with ground 
> beef
> and rice..very large and held together with toothpicks).  We gathered 
> around
> the Christmas tree and my mother would read Luke 2.  We would sing 
> Christmas
> carols especially "O Du Froliche" and "Stille Nacht" and then open our
> presents....usually just one thing.  When we got older and bought each 
> other
> gifts, then there were more.  As the years went by, we adopted the 
> Canadian
> traditon of turkey and stuffing on Christmas day.
>
> One other yearly seasonal treat was poppy seed loaf....a yeast dough with
> ground, cinnamon seasoned poppy seed rolled up and baked....yummmmm.
>
> Rita Lyster
>
>
> Quoting GVLESS at aol.com:
>
>> It is the holiday season and thought it could be interesting if some on 
>> this
>>
>> listserv could share their family customs that could have originated in
>> Volhynia.  I have often wondered if some who had their German origins of
>> course,
>> but did some customs come to our families from Poland as well as 
>> Volhynia
>> itself?  I have seen many written up for our Volga GR's (which  helped me 
>> put
>>
>> some substance to my Volga grandparents history) but have not any  clue 
>> if my
>>
>> husband's parents had some different customs because they were born  in
>> Volhynia
>> but whose grand parents had been in Poland before arriving in  Volhynia. 
>> Are
>>
>> any of you interested in sharing?  Would love to hear  it.
>>
>> Virginia Less
>> Researcher for Bergstraesser/Vogel & Less/Fischer (husband's Volhynian
>> ancestral lines)
>> and for Glantz/Yost & Krahmer/Fradrich (my Volga and German ancestral
>> lines)
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
>
>
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