• Listen

  What it means

  “When on Saint Barbara’s Day a goose walks on ice, Christmas will be on water.” If there is ice on December 4, Christmas will be mild and wet — no snow or frost.

  Vocabulary

  • święta Barbara — Saint Barbara (feast day: December 4)
  • gęś — goose
  • lód — ice
  • Boże Narodzenie — Christmas
  • woda — water

  Grammar note

  'Po lodzie chodzi' and 'po wodzie będzie' — 'po' with the locative expresses movement over a surface or a state of being amid something.

  Cultural context

  Saint Barbara's Day (December 4) is an important feast in Poland, especially among miners. It falls just three weeks before Christmas, making it a natural weather predictor for the holiday.

  Beginner

Noticed a typo, a wrong translation, or anything that doesn't look right? We'd love to fix it — just let us know via the contact page. Thank you!