November 1st is All Saints Day in Poland...it is a national holiday so in the evening Mark and I along with some co-workers from the US visited two cemeteries in Warsaw.
This day is a special day where people all over Poland visit the graves of loved ones, family and friends who have passed away. They come together and visit different cemeteries then gather in their homes in remembrance of those who have passed away.
Just as Thanksgiving is an important day for Americans...All Saints Day is a very important day for Poles.
The graves are adorned with flowers, candles and lanterns. We thought this "rock like" gravestone from the 1800s was very unique...
The cemeteries are lit up with many hundreds of candles. Since it gets dark so early now, I was glad I had my little flashlight to light the path, which was covered with fallen leaves.
Street vendors in front of the cemeteries are selling all day... flowers in pots, cut flowers and flowers made into wreaths. They also sell candles and lanterns of all sizes.
Most graves are decorated with fall flowers....most often the chrysanthemums. Since chrysanthemums are given for the dead it is not considered appropriate to use them for other occasions.
Two cemeteries are on either side of the Wolska Chapel (the only LDS church building in all of Poland)...Since we had seen these cemeteries from the tram before, we chose to visit these on this night.
We knew this was a special memorial we just could not read it in Polish...we later found out that it is named The Fallen Undefeated, and is dedicated to the memory of Poles killed in the first days of the Warsaw Uprising against the occupying German army in 1944.
Next year we would like to come a little earlier and see these areas with some daylight.
We were glad though that we could still learn about and experience in a small way this very special day for the Polish people!
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