Art of Advent Day 20

By Kasia Middleton

Tadeusz Popiel, Pierwsza gwiazdka, c. 1900. Oil on canvas, 40.3 x 27 cm.
Image courtesy of Agra-Art Auction House.

Growing up, I lived every child’s dream: I had two Christmases. My family is both British and Polish, and so on the 25th, we had our traditional Turkey and Christmas crackers, but the day before, we celebrated Wigilia, the traditional supper held on the 24th of December in Poland. On Christmas Eve, both out of religious reverence and in preparation for the huge meal in the evening, it is traditional to fast until the First Star is spotted in the night sky. After this, there is the breaking and sharing of the traditional opłatek (which is a Christmas wafer), followed by a twelve-course meal, symbolic of the twelve Apostles. This feast of childhood favourites like borscht, uszka, challah, pierogi, and gołąbki remains a highlight of my year. Happily, though, I went vegetarian many years ago, so I have managed to escape the pickled herring which looms ominously in its special dish each Christmas.

Each year, it can often feel as though time is slipping away, taking precious traditions with it. But Wigilia is something we have always kept, and something which is always constant. I will never forget the outrage when someone suggested arranging the table differently a couple of years ago. So, every year, I am on duty, loyally staring at the sky, waiting for the First Star, just like the man in Tadeusz Popiel’s (1863-1913) painting Pierwsza gwiazdka. He leans on a snowy fence in his tradition winter clothing, bundled up in leathers and furs, sealed tightly in with an embroidered belt. It is a scene perfect for a painter like Popiel, straddling his two fields of interest, religious iconography and genre scenes. The painting is not finely finished, and the sfumato effect produced imitates the diminished vision one has when out in the countryside at twilight. It brings a realism to the painting, as does the use of Rückenfigur which brings the viewer into the scene: the man watching for the first star is not performing for our gaze, but joining us in it. In the distance glimmers the faint pierwsza gwiazdka. This frosty, silent scene, with its peaceful, meditative atmosphere, invites a moment of contemplation. The Star of Bethlehem, which hung above the stable where Christ was born, an emblem of hope and salvation, was, in the end, the same as this star in the gloom of twilight over the Polish countryside, or my family home in England. It is the promise of everlasting light, salvation, peace on earth, but perhaps most importantly of all, for me and my compatriots, it is the promise of a really delicious meal.