Christmas wafer (Polish: opłatek, plural opłatki; Lithuanian: kalėdaitis) is a central European Christian Christmas tradition celebrated in Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia during Wigilia, or the Christmas Eve Vigil.
The unleavened wafers are baked from pure wheat flour and water, are usually rectangular in shape and very thin; they are identical in composition to a round wafer which become the Host after the Consecration during Mass in the Roman Catholic Church. Being only a reminder of the Body of Christ used in private homes, Opłatki lack sanctification by a priest or bishop. The Opłatki wafers are embossed with Christmas related religious images, varying from the nativity scene, especially Virgin Mary with baby Jesus, to the Star of Bethlehem.
Read more about Christmas Wafer: Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Origins
Famous quotes containing the word christmas:
“Frankly, I do not like the idea of conversations to define the term “unconditional surrender.” ... The German people can have dinned into their ears what I said in my Christmas Eve speech—in effect, that we have no thought of destroying the German people and that we want them to live through the generations like other European peoples on condition, of course, that they get rid of their present philosophy of conquest.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)