All Saints Day

 As my son-in -law suggested, it could be true what he said about my being obsessed with Chopin!  At least his music--tak, to jest prawda!


So naturally when earlier today we went strolling through a large cemetery in Warsaw and happened upon his parents' graves, we were very excited!  Rodzice means parents and Chopina is possesive (Chopin's)


We are learning some helpful things in our Polish classes and will be sorry to have them end next month. Thanks to Rosetta Stone, we'll continue to use some study tools on our own, but will miss our weekly Polish lessons.

From googling Day of the Dead, Poland I found this link and synopsis of the holiday: http://polandpoland.com/allsaintsday.html  It's a pretty big deal here.  Attendance was down in church because of people putting candles on graves on Sunday.  Briefly, from the link, "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 (Wszystkich Świętych), Poland - 1st November

All Souls' Day (Dzien Zaduszny or Zaduszki), Poland - 2nd November"

These pictures were taken in the morning before 10:00 a.m.  As the day progressed there were more people flocking to the cemeteries.

The colors on the trees in these pictures look as much (or more) like Spring as they do Fall, which seems appropriate in an eternal scheme, doesn't it? 

What a fun experience to walk through the decorated cemetery with temperatures in the 50's and later 60's!  Like many Polish holidays, most stores were closed but trams, buses and the subway were filled with Poles, many carrying flowers and candles.

It was especially fun for David to take a break from driving and walk, take a bus, tram and metro through some parts of the city.  Plus having lots of relaxation time on his day off was nice.  Most of Centrum was closed, except a few fast-food restaurants and the movie theater. 

Same cemetery, but notice the lack of leaves on the trees in this picture also taken today.
  
Interesting that All Saints Day is on Nov. 1, and All Souls Day Nov 2.  If we were going by the pictures, it would seem that there are two different realms as the two holidays suggest.

Although Halloween and All Saints Day have little in common, both were acknowledged by some,  particularly young people.  Halloween parties are increasingly popular and this year we saw a  large selection of costumes in the super grocery store, Carrefour. 

This is a picture of some of our Halloween dinner guests last night.  Not in costume, but it was a treat to have them over for dinner and pumpkin trifle.  It wouldn't seem like Halloween without cooking something with fresh pumpkin and giving "kids" some candy! We had them as well as three other "trick-or-treaters" who had to leave before we thought about taking a picture.