One of the major Catholic Holidays celebrated in Poland is All Saints' Day. Instead of celebrating Halloween on Oct. 31, as Americans do, Catholic Poles will participate in the Day of the Dead and visit graves of relatives. It is a time to remember. They will clean the graves the week before and on Nov. 1, will journey to the cemetery to place flowers and light candles on the graves of loved ones.
It is a major religious holiday in which almost everyone will participate. Streets near the cemeteries are shut down and busses re-routed as people flood the streets and pathways, making their way to their loved ones' graves.
Our team took time to go to one of the largest cemeteries in Warsaw to walk through and pray for the people as we watched and experienced what this holiday is all about. I saw mothers teaching their children why they come and why there are so many candles at the memorials.
As I walked through the cemetery, there was a slightly eerie feeling as a faint glow from each headstone rose to create enough light to see fairly well, even though the sun was long gone.
Some people just stood at a grave and stayed there for a while as the candles burned.
In other places people shuffled by, stopped for a moment at an important grave site and kept moving to light yet another candle at another grave.
The cemetery was full of people that evening. Entire families came.
I spoke with many of the people I have met here and everyone told of how important this holiday is to them. They can remember going ever since they were young children. Many will also travel to outlying cities to visit and clean parents' graves.
It is a time for us to pray and to reach out to these people who don't have the everlasting hope we do in Christ.
1 comment:
fantastic photos!
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