An interview with Sonia Styrkacz, a psychologist from a Silesian Roma family married to a Carpathian Polish Rom.On Christmas traditions, she says: “On Christmas Eve, various traditions mix in our house – Romani, Polish, Catholic, Silesian, highlander. I am a Silesian Roma, my husband is a mountain Roma from Podhale, so our family traditions are different. In my family home, holidays were a time of meeting, peace and conversation. Religious aspects receded into the background. For my husband, there are no holidays without mass. We also have different culinary traditions – my husband’s family fasted on Christmas Eve, while mine ate meat. We weren’t preparing maybe 12 dishes, but there had to be a lot of food – stuffed cabbage rolls, pork chops and minced meat, roulades, which we took over from Silesian cuisine.”

• Sonia Styrkacz: Jestem dumna z mojej romskiej tradycji. In: Vogue. 23.12.2023. https://www.vogue.pl/a/sonia-styrkacz-o-kulturze-romskiej-w-polsce