Greetings
Welcome, everybody. My name is Aleksander Dańda, the Consulate General of Poland for Hong Kong and Macau. It's great to be here.
1.The most significant festival or culture of Poland?
We have to remember that those traditions they come from different sources. The first of the sources is our Roman Catholic religion. Lot of those traditions they are strongly embedded in the religion, which is followed by more than 90% of the Polish population. About the second source of those traditions, this is our former religion, our pagan past, when were still a part of the Slavic family. And those two traditions intermix and then combined into a specific mix of different behaviors during specific times. So for example, on November 1st and November 2nd, we got the All Saints' Day and the Day of the Dead and we do not do trick or treating, we do not celebrate like the Americans for example during the Halloween. What we do instead is to go to the cemetery so we sweep the graves, we meet our families there, we talk to one another, and we recall the deceased family members. We like the candles for them to help them in the afterlife. Those are the tradition of Christian religion and the pagan tradition mixed together. I remember some of my first recollection for my child it is about the cemetery, and full of candlesticks and the glow from the candles is so bright that you think there's no night at all.
2. How would Polish celebrate Christmas?
Christmas is popular all over the world. In Poland, what is special what is unique about the way that we celebrate Christmas is that the most important part of Christmas comes before Christmas actually. It is the day before Christmas, Christmas Eve which is the most important for Polish people. What we do on that day is to prepare the special meal, special supper and this supper is held in the family way. So usually a bigger family gather around the table meaning that usually children come to their parents or grandparents and the whole big family sit around the table. Supper starts when the first star appears in the sky, this is the symbol of Jesus Christ being born like prophets in the Bible which was signified by the birth of a new Star. We see that the table we've got 12 dishes, this is also another symbolism because there were Twelve Apostles disciples of Jesus and we usually leave one place at the table extra for an unexpected guest so this is also the sign of Polish hospitality in here. There were so many Wars where our loved ones and lost that we hope that they will come back to us during that very special day. We start the supper sharing a special type of bread which is called the wafer ‘Oplatek’ in Polish. This is a wide type of bread which is also used during the celebrations of the church and we share this way for this bread so with everybody around the table we come over to such a person and we say our best wishes to each and every one of them.
3. Are there any like associations or any activities for Polish in Hong Kong?
There is one active association which is translated into ‘We love Poland, HK’. This association combines both the Hongkongers and also Polish people who share their love for this particular country. Activities organized by this group of people, some activities are connected with teaching the Polish language, not only to children but also to students or adults. We've also got are some talks about specific Polish tourist attractions or some special days or design which is quite a big thing in Poland as well like posters, comic books, that kind of thing.
4. I heard this is the first time you came to Hong Kong so how’re your feelings in here?
I arrived on the 1st of October so it's been only two weeks for me here. But what I can already see about this great city is, what strikes me the most in Hong Kong, is that you do not have any single dominant religion or single dominant culture in here, you are quite tolerant and is an accepting society. You do not judge other people, you do not say this is my religion, this is my belief, this is better than yours for example. Please do keep it that way because this is something unique.
5. Related stories and history of your national flower?
Our national flower is poppy, the red type of flower which grows usually in the fields. It is a national symbol from the times of the second world war. It is connected with the history of Poland during World War II when after the attack by Germany in 1939, the Polish government moved to London, and the Polish army was reorganized in the west of Europe and the army was also fighting the Germans. One of those places was in Italy 1944, in the mountains of Monte Cassino. And after 5-months of probably one of the bloodiest battles between the allies and the German, it was the Polish army which defeated the German there. There were so many deaths during the Battle of both sides, that's the whole field was like a red, but it was also red because of the flowers that poppies which covered the slopes of the Monte cassino, side of the bottle. So starting from that time, this flower, the current poppy became the national flower of Poland, it also appears in a sad song which is quite popular in Poland ‘The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino’.
6. Can you teach our audience some trendy slangs in your language?
I will try, however you should remember that the Polish language is considered to be one of the most difficult in the world when it comes to grammar and pronunciation.
When we like something, we do not like to show it in an open way. We usually try to say that ‘Well, maybe it's not bad’ but we will definitely not say that something is great. So, for the usual meeting of a person, when somebody says ‘Jak się masz?’ which means “How are you?” - the normal response in English would be ‘I'm fine, thank you.’ But the Polish person will not answer ‘I'm fine, thank you.’ We will answer ‘Stara bieda’ which means ‘The same old bad luck’. This is showing that in our mindset we are cautious, we don’t really feel pessimistic about something, but we hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Remember - you do not have to say this with a sad face, because we do not feel that way, we do not feel deeply pessimistic about something, we just don't like showing that we are optimistic about something.
6. Wrapping up
My name is Aleksander Dańda. I am Polish Consul general for Hong Kong and Macau and you are now listening to RTHK Radio 5, Serena Ha ‘Cultural Garden’.
今日好开心来到波兰驻香港及澳门领事馆，我们我们先请波兰驻香港及澳门总领事和我们打招呼。
大家好我叫Aleksander Dańda，是波兰驻香港及澳门领事馆的总领事。非常高兴能在这里。
1.波兰最有代表性的文化或者节日？
我们要记得波兰的传统习俗来自不同来源。第一种来源是我们的罗马天主教宗教，我们有超过九成的波兰人信奉天主教。许多的传统都深受宗教影响。第二种来源是我们的前信仰，即异教主义，我们仍是斯拉夫民族的一部分。这两种传统混合并结合成一种在特定时刻的特别行为。例如在11月1日和2日，我们有诸圣节和亡灵节，我们不像美国以不给糖就捣蛋来庆祝万圣节，反而会去到墓园扫墓、和家人见面交谈、追忆我们逝去的家族成员。我们会用蜡烛来帮助亡者死后的生活。这些习俗都是混合了天主教和异教信仰。我记得我童年的第一个回忆就是关于墓园，满满的蜡烛和强烈的烛光让你觉得这里没有夜晚。
2.波兰人是如何庆祝圣诞节的？
圣诞节全世界都受到欢迎。在波兰最独特的庆祝圣诞节方式是，圣诞节前一天比起圣诞节正日更为重要。对于波兰人来说平安夜最重要，在当天家家户户会准备特别的晚餐，整个家族会聚集在餐桌前，小朋友、家长、祖父母整个家庭都会坐下来。当第一颗星滑过夜空时，晚餐便正式开始，这象征着耶稣基督的诞生如圣经中的先知所说。在餐桌上会有12道菜，象征着耶稣的12门徒。我们通常会额外留一个空位给意料之外的宾客，代表了波兰的好客。在波兰曾经发生许多战争，我们希望死去的亲人和挚爱能够在这特别的一天回来团聚。开始晚餐时我们会分享一种特别的面包，奥普拉特克(opłatek)圣饼，一种在教会也会分享的面包，并互相送上祝福 。
3.有协会举办活动给在香港的波兰人吗？
有一个非常活跃的协会翻译作中文为「我们爱波兰，香港」。这个协会有香港人和波兰人，交流他们对这独特国家的热爱。协会所举办的活动包括教导小朋友、学生、成人学习波兰文，又有一些讲座讲解特别的波兰景点、波兰十分重视的设计艺术，如海报、漫画等。
4.我知道这是你第一次来到香港，你对香港文化的印象？
我在10月1号到达，这是我的第二个星期在香港。不过我已经感受到这座城市的美好，最令我感到惊喜的是这里没有一种主要的宗教信仰，香港是个包容接纳的社会，并不会判断他人、互相比较谁的信仰较好。希望香港能继续维持这种独特的文化。
5.可以介绍一下波兰的国花吗？
我们的国花是罂粟花，一种在田野中常见的红色花朵。这是我们从第二次世界大战时期便有的国家象征。这与我们波兰在1939年的第二次世界大战被德国攻击的历史有关，波兰政府移动去伦敦，波兰军队亦在东欧重新组织并对抗德军。在1994年意大利的蒙特卡西诺，发生了盟军与德国之间超过五个月最为残酷的一场战争。这场战役两边都死伤惨重，整片大地都变为红色，红罂粟花铺满了蒙特卡西诺的山坡。从那时开始这种花，红罂粟便成为了波兰的国花，亦出现在波兰的一首著名悲伤歌曲「卡西诺的红罂粟」。
6.最后领事可以教我们一些波兰潮语吗？
我会尝试不过要知道波兰文被视为世上最为困难的一种语言，特别是其文法和发音。
当我们喜欢一件事物，我们不会直接表达，我们会说「嗯，还不赖，但我们绝对不会说这件事非常好。所以当我们见面时，当别人说「你好吗」，正常回答会是「我很好，谢谢」。但是波兰人不会回答「我很好，谢谢」，而是「照样的不幸」，反映了我们非常小心谨慎，我们不是悲观，只是抱最大的希望，做最坏的准备。 请记住不必用悲伤的表情说这句话，因为我们并不感到悲观，我们只是不喜欢表明自己对某件事感到乐观。
7.总结
我是Aleksander，波兰驻香港及澳门领事馆的总领事。你现在收听的是RTHK 第五台，夏妙然，文化花园。
