All Saint’s Day in Poland; A great Cultural heritage for families to re-unite and pray for their deceased loved Ones.

 

All Saint’s Day in Poland; A great Cultural heritage for families to re-unite and pray for their deceased loved Ones.

Are you new in Poland and may be wondering why there are changes in the line of public transports? Do you commute by car, and you may have noticed some unusual traffic jam lately especially in the capital city of Poland, Warsaw? Do you live close to any of the cemeteries in Poland and you may have noticed a recent crowd of people trooping in and around the cemeteries? Worry no more as this is connected to the enriching historical culture of the Poles. While the rest of the world are busy with the Halloween costumes and celebrations, the Poles are deeply pre-occupied with the preparation and cleaning of the graveyards of their loved ones.
November 1^st is a special day in Poland and in general the month of November is a memorable month in Poland as it highlights some significant celebrations in the history of Poland. (Nov 1^st – All saints day, Nov 2^nd – All soul’s Day, Nov 11^th – Polish independence).
It is no longer news that Poland’s culture is deeply intertwined with Catholicism. In fact, for many Poles, either you are a Catholic or you belong to other religions (not denominations per se). While it is true that the Country is a Strong Catholic country, it’s worth to mention that there are other religions and there are no conflicts or discrimination on one’s religion or worship.

The proportion of people in Poland identifying as Roman Catholics has fallen to 71% in the latest national census, down from 88% a decade earlier. The figures mirror other findings from recent years showing declining attachment to Poland’s Catholic church, which has been hit by a series of scandals over child sex abuse by clergy and has faced criticism for its support of an unpopular near-total ban on abortion.
The new data, released by Statistics Poland (GUS), a state agency, show that in the 2021 census, 27.1 million people (71.3%) identified themselves as followers of the Roman Catholic church. That was down from 33.7 million (87.6%) at the last census a decade earlier.
Meanwhile, the proportion saying that they belonged to no faith almost tripled, from 2.4% in 2011 to 6.9% in 2021. Likewise, those who refused to answer the question also almost tripled, from 7.1% to 20.5%.

The highest proportions of Roman Catholics were found in the eastern provinces of Subcarpathia (82.9%), Świętokrzyskie (81.2%), and Lublin (80.7%). The lowest were in West Pomerania (64.5%), Lower Silesia (65.3%) and Pomerania (67.2%).
Apart from Roman Catholicism, all other religious denominations remained small in the 2021 census, with the Orthodox church the second largest (151,648 believers, 0.4% of the population), followed by Jehovah’s Witnesses (108,754, 0.3%) and Lutherans belonging to the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession (65,407, 0.2%).
Among non-Christian denominations, none were larger than 0.1% of the population. The biggest, with 3,236 followers, was Diamond Way Buddhism. Meanwhile, the number belonging to the Muslim Religious Union (2,209) was smaller than the number identifying as Pastafarians (2,312) – followers of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a parody religion. 
In fact, the roads are busy and the entire streets are greeted with serene. Such a serenity that could be likened to the Magna Silentia of the Seminary trainings.
What is All souls day? What is All saint’s day? Why does it seem that All Soul’s is celebrated more on 1^st in Poland
What is All Soul’s day?
Zaduszki sees people all over the country gather to visit the graves of their loved ones. Throughout Poland, cemeteries glow with lights. Travelling home is a must to celebrate Zaduszki. What once began as a set of traditions to please the spirits of the departed is now an occasion to gather the family and remember those no longer with us. [2]
Often, many Poles buy candle and flowers to go to pray for their deceased ones. Traditionally, masses are celebrated in the different cemeteries on this day All Soul’s day. Police are in charge of the traffic from the weekends to ensure a smooth movement as many people make their ways to the different Cemeteries all over Poland.
Generally, according to the Catholic universal calendar, the Holy Mother Church Celebrates the Feast of All Saints on 1^st of Nov every year and 2^nd of November is observed as All Soul’s day. This practice and ritual is not an exception in Poland too but in Poland, one may seem to observe that Nov 1 is likely seen and observed by many people as the day for All souls. 

Why is it so?

Well, as history may have it and back in the years during the Socialist era, Poland has always had 1^st of November as a business bank holiday and on 2^nd is normal business day. Polish Zaduszki celebrations begin with tending to family graves and surrounding graveyards on the first day, and then extends into the the next. November 1st is a bank holiday in Poland and remained free of work even during Communist times, while the following day is not. The Zaduszki custom of honouring the dead thus corresponds with All Souls' Day celebrations in many parts of the world, but has a more profound meaning, and is much more observed in Poland than in most places in the West.[3]
‘‘If you decide to visit any cemetery in Poland at the beginning of November, you will surely be taken aback by seeing that it is fully lit with thousands of candles and decorated with tons of flowers of all kinds (but mostly the Chrysanthemums). This is all because of the All Saints’ Day, a Polish tradition during which Poles from all over the country travel to their home cities to visit the graves of their deceased relatives.’’[4]
Interesting to know about this culture is the fact that most persons go to the forest or mountains to find the graves of their loved ones to pray for them irrespective of the distance it could take to go there. Such a good way to remember and pray for their deceased ones.
Having known why many people prefer to celebrate All soul’s day on All saint’s day in Poland, of course there may be some rationality behind this as we mentioned above but that does not remove the fact that the Church maintains this feast as accordingly.


What is All saint’s Day? Wszystkich Swietych
 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith” (Heb 12:1-2). This is a perfect description of a communion of the saints which has a fundamental Pillar in all Christians and to tis they profess.
The history of the feast reveals a great deal about the church’s understanding of the communion of saints. The communion of saints is the church, both the living and dead. To a layman’s understanding of the word, it is a day for commemoration the Saints in heaven. But, there are more to the history of this day which has made impact on this feast.
All Saints’ Day was not always a solemnity observed by the universal church, and is not celebrated everywhere on Nov. 1. The feast originated in the earliest centuries of the church, when Christians commemorated the many martyrs who died at the hands of their Roman persecutors.
Because there were so many martyrs, they could not each have their own feast day; but they were seen as such important witnesses that the Christians did not want to leave any of them out.
Pope Gregory III consecrated a chapel at St. Peter’s Basilica to all the saints, as well, with an anniversary date of Nov. 1. Rome adopted Nov. 1 as the date of the feast of All Saints in the eighth century, and in the ninth century Pope Gregory IV extended that observance to the whole of the Latin Church.[5]

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[1] https://www.indexmundi.com/poland/religions.html
[2] https://culture.pl/en/article/all-souls-day-the-tradition-of-zaduszki-in-poland
[3] IBID
[4] https://www.xperiencepoland.com/all-saints-day-poland/
[5] https://catholicreview.org/all-saints-day-history-and-traditions/

https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/09/29/proportion-of-catholics-in-poland-falls-to-71-new-census-data-show/