Chrysfus Rodzi si

In the age-old Christmas ritual of Poland, the first rising star of Christmas Eve is greeted with the glad kolenda (carol) Wsrod Nocnej Ciszy (In the Stillness of the Night). Then the family hastens to table and partakes of the great Christmas wafer, symbol of brotherly love and forgiveness. Another kolenda, Bracia, Patrzcie Jeno (Brothers, Look Ahead), asks a blessing on this rite (and on a plow concealed under the table, so that the land, too, may be blessed). At pasterka, or midnight mass, the swelling Gdy sie Chrystus Rodzi (When Christ the Lord is Born) is sung, and the carolers take to the streets, rollicking the happy My tez Pastuszkowie (We Also Shepherds).

CBS last week broadcast for the 5,000,000 Poles in the U. S. a faithful, tragic, Polish Christmas, kolendy and all. Parent and producer of this ceremony (from WJR, Detroit) was young Father Edward Majeske, director of the Detroit Roman Catholic Archdiocesan Organists Guild, and famed interpreter of Polish liturgical music. His cast: 24 youths of the Schola Cantorum of the Polish seminary of S. S. Cyril & Methodius. Their best-known kolenda, Wsrod Nocnej Ciszy, in Father Majeske's translation:

Amid the silence of the solemn night Sound the glad summons, Lo, the King of Light, Rouse, O Shepherds, haste with singing, Christ has come, salvation bringing, Born at Bethlehem.

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