Wszystkich Świętych (All Saints Day) // Dzien Zaduszny (All Souls day)

All Saints’ Day is a festival which has been celebrated in Poland and the rest of the Catholic world for many centuries. All Saints Day is a national holiday, and a day when people all over Poland visit the graves of loved ones and to place candles and flowers on graves. The special candles, which can burn for many hours, are placed there so that departed souls can find their way through the darkness. Cemeteries are lit by many hundreds of these candles and at night the cemeteries can often be seen glowing from long distances. Many Poles travel long distances to visit family graves and to remember the dead. The holiday is also sometimes known as the Day of the Dead.

The 2nd of November called the Day of All Souls (Zaduszki) is the special occasions to pray for our family members and for these that died but are still in purgatory waiting their time to be able to enter heaven. The masses are held in the churches just like the day before. Additionally, the names of the descendants are read by priests during the services and all pray together for these souls. This day is usually gloomier and more hazy and rainy than the November 1st.

Thank you for this post. My partner has gone to Poland this week to visit his departed and non-departed loved ones. This has helped me to understand more about the significance of this time. I have seem similar things in other countries.. In Mexico Day of the Dead is very popular, but I wasnt sure if it was the same as in Poland.

I lived next to a cemetary in Poland and during this holiday there was a mass in the evening in the cemetary and everyone would light candles and place them on the graves. You could see the glowing cemetary from far away giving it an eirie feeling. It is a big holiday in Poland.

Owing to commercialism these candles can be battery powered copies.

we shuold say a prayer for those people no longer with us.. may god bless their dear souls

yes. For those of you who have never visited a PL cemetary, here are a couple of visuals. It's amazing to see all of these candles.

is there ever any problem with them falling over and causing fires?

Most are in glass so unless someone intentionally lights the cemetary on fire...prob not. It's cool, they sell tons of candles/flowers right outside of the cemetary.

it looks nice. wish I could have gone too :(

Ours aren't nearly as nice looking any time of the year. I love the fact that most PL families still pay respect and visit frequently adding flowers and candles. I've seen teh cemetaries lit up on other days as well and not just all saints day.

things like that don't fall over easily:
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Znicz
http://images.google.com/images?client=opera&rls=en&q=znicz&sourceid=o pera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

unfortunatelly, the older types (thick glass or ceramic, open at the top) are replaced with modern ones (thin glass or even plastic all over, instead of glass and metal),
I really loved the old type, when I was a kid - we were all putting our fingers in it, so the stearin was sticking to the fingers and when it cooled down we had colourful artificial "fingernails")

With Halloween preceding these two very important days (All Saints & All Souls) - it is important not to get caught up with the ever growing commercialism (candy, gore, horror etc.) and forget to pray for our dearly departed friends and family. Also, asking for the intercession of Saints is especially important during this time as well.

I think that in N. America Halloween has overshadowed these two important days - I'm proud that Poland pays proper homage to our beloved Saints and the souls of the dead - not to ghouls and goblins.

That sounds really nice.

Iy was really nice when we took our tents and slept by the cemetary at night... that was spooky!

wow hehe, I'd love to have done that - but none of my family/friends would have the guts to join me if I asked. Or maybe they would class it more as having sense than lacking guts.

It will be a few years yet before we see Halloween in Poland.

The kids can't go Trick or Treating because most people live in flats and if they can't gain entry to the block it will be a waste of time.

Many people leave town in the days before November 1st. This will also cause problems for children.

Yes living on even third floor of a block of flats deters kids from knocking at the door - it's more fun living in a house in that way.

Living in London , Poles will be attending to the graves of their loved ones on November 1st & 2nd; in Poland Nov 1st is a national holiday, although most do not go to work on 2nd November either.

Most of the cemetaries with Polish graves in England will have special prayers held by the local parish priest this coming Sunday.

Gunnersbury Cemetary in West London has many Polish graves, including my grandparents, and also Katyn Memorial to remember all those Polish officers murdered by the Russians in WWII

if you look closely with squinty half closed eyes you can just make out the ghostly flickering figure of PJPII in the third candle from the bottom left... or is it QEII... cant be sure...

You've got any problem with that, infidel ?

or maybe a dolphin? :)



C'on doggie, where is your sense of humour.....