"Szczudraki" St. Stephen Day December 26

Sometimes a posting of what I have learned about family history is added on to or elaborated on by one of the readers. Or they add information that takes what I know in a totally different direction. Learning about "Szczudraki" is an example. Eugeniusz Raczkiewicz was giving more information about Jan Raczkiewicz, the father of my grandfather Anthony (and my great grandfather.) Besides the obvious thing of sending 3 sons to the US, Jan put up the first Christmas tree in Sabaudia and taught his sons rhymes which were wishes for Christmas and the New Year. The tradition was that the boys went from house to house and passed these good wishes on to everyone. They carried oat grains to shower their hosts which represented the stoning of St. Stephen. In that time, the boys would receive stilts, a sweet cake. When Eugeniusz learned to do this from his father Boleslaw, the boys instead received a small amount of money. Eugeniusz remembered that the poems he had to recite were long but his father would check if he could do them without a mistake. ***** When I did some research, it sounded like it was done for St Stephen (Dec.26) or Epiphany (Jan 6.) ***** http://www.dialektologia.uw.edu.pl/index.php?l1=mapa-serwisu&l2=&l3=&l4=lubelszczyzna-wsch-kultura ***** “On Epiphany, it was a popular practice to walk on the so-called szczodrakach - children walked around the village from the morning and sang a song (szczodrówka). The housewives gave them generously, small croissants baked from wholemeal bread. Having collected more delicacies, the children went to an inn or a cottage, where they shared the delicacies, which they then ate.” “You entered and sang: Szczodraki kulaki. And then they sang a carol or two. Wherever they gave candies, they sang a Christmas carol, and wherever generously or that bread was poured, but bread, no one gave only a cake, they sang less:” I also learned that it occurred in some regions of Poland but not others. My Polish teacher is from Wroclaw and she had never heard of it. ***** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Stephen