Polish · Pol. rzeczownik, feminine noun

Wieczerza

said vyeh · CHEH · zhah

An old Polish word for the evening meal, and the name of a family that gathers around it, all over the world.

Take your place at the table Read the story

I · The Word

Supper, from the Polish word for evening

Before it was a surname, wieczerza was the meal a household shared when the day's work was done.

Wieczerza grows from wieczór, evening. It comes down from the Old Slavic večerja, and its cousins still sit at tables across the Slavic world: Czech večeře, Slovak večera, Croatian večera, Slovene večerja, Ukrainian вечеря.

In English it means supper, the evening meal. In everyday modern Polish that meal is usually called kolacja, so wieczerza now carries a more solemn, ceremonial tone. Poles reach for it when the meal matters: in Scripture, in church, and on Christmas Eve.

How to say it

Wievyeh
czeCHEH
rzazhah

IPA [vjɛˈt͡ʂɛʐa]. Polish stresses the second-to-last syllable. W sounds like English v, cz like the ch in church, and rz like the s in measure.

A small lexicon

wieczór
evening
wieczerza
supper; the evening meal, in a formal or sacred sense
kolacja
supper, as you would say it at home today
Ostatnia Wieczerza
the Last Supper
Wieczerza Pańska
the Lord's Supper
wieczerza wigilijna
the Christmas Eve supper

II · The Supper

Ostatnia Wieczerza, the Last Supper

When Poles speak of the meal Christ shared with the twelve on the night before the Passion, they use the same word as this family's name.

In church and at home

Ostatnia Wieczerza

Leonardo da Vinci's mural in Milan, known in English as The Last Supper, is in Polish simply Ostatnia Wieczerza, the last evening meal. In Polish Bibles and at every Mass, the Eucharist is remembered as Wieczerza Pańska, the Lord's Supper.

Many Polish and Polish-American families hang an image of the Last Supper above the dining table, so the family's own supper is eaten beneath it.

The holiest supper of the year

Wieczerza wigilijna

On Christmas Eve, Wigilia, Polish families sit down to the most important meal of the year. It is a meatless feast, traditionally of twelve dishes, one for each apostle.

  • The meal begins when a child spots pierwsza gwiazdka, the first star.
  • Everyone breaks the opłatek, a thin wafer, and shares a wish with each person at the table.
  • One extra place is always set for the unexpected guest, the traveller, or someone who could not come home.

The empty place at the table is the heart of this site. It is set for every Wieczerza we have not met yet.Why we built Wieczerza.com

Our name is an invitation to sit down together. Wieczerza.com gathers the families who carry it, from Kraków to Chicago, Detroit to Melbourne, so the table can keep growing.

III · The Name

A family named for the evening table

Like many Polish surnames drawn from everyday words, Wieczerza most likely began as a byname. It may have marked a family known for its hospitality, a household tied to a feast day, or a role in parish life. The parish books that could settle it are scattered across Poland and the countries its emigrants reached.

Over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Wieczerza families left for America, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, Brazil and Australia. Clerks at ports and parishes often wrote the name as they heard it. Each family tree that joins this network adds a page to the story.

Spellings to search for in old records

WieczerzaWiecherzaWieczerszaWieczeżaVecherza

IV · Today at the Table

A story and a supper, served fresh each morning

Every day at 6:00 a.m. Eastern, a new chapter of Polish influence on the world and a new recipe from the Polish kitchen.

Polish History · Fact of the Day

Today · Friday, 23 October 2026

1942

Courage

Irena Sendler and the children of the ghetto

Social worker Irena Sendler and her network smuggled about 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and placed them with Polish families and convents. She wrote their real names on slips of paper and buried them in jars so they could one day find their families.

Polish Recipe of the Day

Today · Friday, 23 October 2026

Gołąbki

Stuffed cabbage rolls

Occasion Sunday dinners and weddingsTime 2 hrServes 6

The name means little doves. Tender cabbage leaves are wrapped around pork and rice and baked in tomato sauce.

Ingredients

  • 1 large head white cabbage
  • 1 lb (450 g) ground pork
  • 1 cup (200 g) cooked rice
  • 1 onion, finely chopped and softened in butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper, 1 tsp marjoram
  • 2 cups (500 ml) tomato passata
  • 1 cup (240 ml) stock
  • 2 tbsp sour cream

Method

  1. Core the cabbage and simmer it whole, peeling off leaves as they soften. Shave the thick rib from each leaf.
  2. Mix pork, rice, onion, egg and seasoning.
  3. Place a portion on each leaf, fold in the sides and roll up tightly.
  4. Layer the rolls seam-side down in a dish lined with spare leaves. Pour over passata and stock.
  5. Cover and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour 15 minutes. Stir sour cream into the sauce before serving.

Smacznego!

Next serving in --:--:-- at 6:00 a.m. Eastern

V · Join the Table

Are you a Wieczerza? There is a place set for you.

Carry the name, married into it, or descend from it, wherever you live. Add your family to a growing worldwide network.

Find your relativesSee which countries and regions the family reached, and connect with cousins you never knew you had.
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