Exchanging Christmas greetings during the traditional Christmas Eve dinner and sharing the unleavened bread (oplatek) is a tradition very dear to the Poles. It is also customary during the Christmas Eve dinner to set an extra place at table for an anonymous guest, a foreigner or a lonely person. In the days before Christmas, local authorities organise exchanges of greetings in many centres in cooperation with Churches and religious communities. There will be a meeting in Warsaw today organised by the Sant’Egidio Community – which has been working in Poland since 2008 – with the participation of Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz. Similar events are being held in various places. The Christmas event in Bialystok last Sunday was attended by the Orthodox Archbishop Jakub. On that occasion, the president of the Catholic Association “Droga”, Fr. Edward Konkol, from the Society of the Divine Word, said: “I know that it has been a long time since many of you have entered a church, either Catholic or Orthodox, but I know that even if the churches were all closed, God would find you anyway”. The event in Barczewo, a small municipality in North-Eastern Poland, organised by the Order of Malta, was dedicated to the elderly. While sharing the oplatek with those in attendance, the Archbishop Emeritus of Warmia, Mgr. Edmund Piszcz, said that this tradition means “doing good to others”.