Poland's Roman Catholic church has given believers the go-ahead to party this New Year's Eve even though celebrations will fall on Friday, a day of penance and restraint.
The Rev. Jozef Kloch, a church spokesman, said Monday that although Catholics should normally exercise restraint on Fridays, the day Christ died, bishops and priests may grant parishioners dispensations this year.
Poland is predominantly Roman Catholic and the homeland of Pope John Paul II, and the church plays a powerful role in everyday life. Several priests have been fielding questions from Catholics worried that it would be sinful to celebrate on Dec. 31.
"For many it is a serious problem," said the Rev. Jacek Dadela, a priest at Warsaw's Holy Cross Church.
But Kloch said that canon law gives bishops and parish priests the power to grant dispensation from observing the traditional Friday rules, such as forgoing meat and dancing.
"The Church is not some ruthless, soulless institution which does not care what the occasion is," Kloch said. "The end of the year is definitely a sufficient reason for such dispensation."