All Saint's Day
Today it’s All Saint’s Day in the (Roman) Catholic Church.
That means today Poles make a massive cemetery trips in order to fulfill the tradition of lighting candles and visiting the graves of deceased relatives. As Halloween has it’s roots in celtic „Samhain”, Slavic All Saint’s Day derives from ancient Slavic feast called „Dziady” (that means Grandfathers). In Poland, this tradition even prevailed in the form of Christian Zaduszki feast (2 XI). There is even a very popular XIX century drama written by Polish-Lithuanian author Adam Mickiewicz, in which the II part is dedicated to this festivities.
Fortunately my ancestors (;>) are buried in only one cemetery, but most of my friends have to travel even to different cities just to light a candle on some relative's grave. Every year, before returning home, we make a stop at the cemetery on Ogrodowa Street. If someone is interested in it's history there is a review below. And some photos.
The best time for seeing the place on All Saint's Day is of course the evening. With all the lanterns and candles burning it's a amazing and magical view. Unfortunately this year we went there in the afternoon and it wasn't so spectacular, but always beautiful. I brought my new camera, so please be patient with the quality of my photos.
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Many prominent factory owners were laid to rest in the Evangelical: the Biedermans, Grohmans, Geyers, Kindermanns, Scheiblers, as well as scientists, actors, artists, national heroes and priests. The largest tomb, unrivalled in Poland, adorns the Scheiblers' burial place. It resembles a tiny Neo - Gothic church.
The biggest is the Catholic part. You can find here Heinzl family mausoleum. Here are buried fighters from The January's Insurrection, 1905 year's revolution, 1920 year's war and World War II.
In the Orthodox part laid mostly tsar's officials and soldiers.
Spare tombs on this cemetery runned out in 1888.
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