Distant in everyday life and close on festive occasions. The culture of celebrating religious festivals in migrant families

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present a research analysis containing the results of research on the functioning of migrant families in the context of everyday experiences of separation and Christmas closeness. In order to characterize everyday and holiday culture as fully as possible, I found it important to present the behaviors present in migrant families, symbolic objects and specific customs related to holidays. The obtained conclusions are the result of a detailed and very demanding analysis of huge research material that I obtained during many hours of interviews with members of migrant families – migrant parents, parents staying in Poland with children, children remaining in the country of origin and relatives who, for various reasons, partially took over the responsibilities of the migrant. parent. The aim of the article was to show the way of perceiving the period of religious holidays, which are also family holidays. What was important to me was the meaning that the respondents themselves assigned to religion and holidays. During the interviews, there were many emotional statements from the narrators.