The Feast of the Epiphany

Today marked the 12th Day of Christmas and also the feast of the Epiphany. This is a large holiday that is celebrated in Poland and we participated as well by attending mass this morning and watching the parade. We went to mass at St. Mary's Basilica and the mass was celebrated by the bishop. Obviously the mass was in Polish but since the bishop was there a good portion was also in Latin. Mass was very similar to the US but all of the people receive communion on the tongue and there is not much singing that takes place because there are no song books. Mass also starts every hour on the hour in the morning and so just as church finishes the people file out and their seats get filled instantly just as Mass starts again. After mass I went to a cafe with a few of the girls on my trip and we got hot chocolate and lunch. The hot chocolate that I got was delicious and very rich. As we sat in the cafe the parade processed outside of the window and we watched it pass.

After lunch we headed out to join the celebration there were tons of people gathered at a large nativity scene where the Three Kings were standing. There was a lot of singing and all of the people joined in. The Main Square was full of shops that sold a variety of items. We meandered through the different shops and we each found a few different things. We then went through the streets and stopped at some of the different shops, during this time a light snow fall began and it was absolutely gorgeous.

The snow continued throughout the entire day and accumulated relatively quickly. We decided to spend our evening watching a Polish professional hockey game. We took taxis to get there, which was a first time experience for me. We got to the arena and the tickets were only 1 zloty ($0.33 USD)!! Can't beat that! We got to choose our seats and so we sat center ice, 3rd row, it was awesome! Soon many other fans began to file in and the atmosphere was very exciting. We were cheering for Cracovia, and just before the game started their anthem played and all of the fans with scarves held them up and everyone sang loudly. The hockey was very entertaining, not quite as distinguished as what I'm used to but it still made for a good game. The fans were very into the game and conducted many different cheers, which also made for a fun atmosphere. The game ended in a 2-2 tie and so we headed to a 5 minute OT. After the 5 minutes we were still at 2-2, so a shoot out took place. Each team got three shooters and Cracovia pulled it out with one goal and the other team scored none! It was such a great experience and I really enjoyed it! Tomorrow we are off to Auschwitz which will be very emotional but I am looking forward to what I will learn there.