All Saints’ Day, celebrated on November 1, is an important holiday celebrated, especially in Poland and Lithuania, which offers the opportunity to recognize the deceased. If you are learning about Polish culture or Lithuanian holidays, or if you visit Poland or Lithuania during All Saints and All Souls days, it helps to know what this day is all about. There are similarities between the way the two countries observe this holiday, in part because Lithuania and Poland were once one country.
Observations of all the saints
On this night, cemeteries are visited and candles and flowers are placed on graves while the living pray for the deceased. The nature of the vacation does not dictate that only the graves of family members are decorated; Old and forgotten tombs and graves of strangers are also visited. Nationwide, graves of important figures and military graves are honored.
Candles in colorful glass jars numbering thousands of lit cemeteries on All Saints Day, and a day that might otherwise be considered a sad affair is transformed into one of beauty and light. In addition, it is an opportunity for family members to come together and remember those they have lost. This time can also be a time of healing: in the last century, both in Poland and Lithuania, populations were reduced by war, occupation regimes and deportations, and this day may be when generally silent people speak. of your losses.
A mass is celebrated for those who wish to attend church and pray for the dead.
Families can come together for a meal, leaving an empty space with a full plate of food and a full glass as a way to honor those who have passed.
Halloween and All Saints’ Day
Halloween is not observed in Poland or Lithuania as it is in the United States, but All Saints’ Day recalls the ancient aspect of the Halloween tradition that describes how the world of the living and the world of the dead collide. All Saints Day is followed by All Souls Day (November 2), and it is the night between these two days that past generations believed that the deceased would visit the living or return to their homes. In Lithuania, the day is called Vėlinės , and its history is full of pagan legends when festivals and ceremonies remembered those who lived before.
In the past, after visiting the graves of the deceased, family members would return home together for a seven-course dinner that was “shared” with dead souls visiting Earth: windows and doors were left open to facilitate their Arrival and departure.
Traditionally, various superstitions have surrounded this day, such as bad weather signifying a year of death and the idea that churches are full of souls on this day.
