Parthemores in Poland

Wow!  Does Poland go so crazy over Halloween that they made it a national holiday? 

Nope, it’s not popular at all.  Here is proof:  I was at the mall on Friday and other than seeing a few poorly carved pumpkins, you couldn’t tell that it was the end of October.  Not like in the US, where Halloween displays have been up since August.

The holiday I’m referring to is All Saints’ Day, which is November 1^st.  This is the day when families go to the cemeteries to remember their deceased relatives.  They will clean up the graves, plant flowers, and leave candles.  It is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year as people drive home to join their families.

For the past two years, we have gone to the military cemetery at the Cytadela, the huge fort-turned-park near our apartment.  (I intend to blog about the Cytadela at some point, because it’s pretty awesome).  Many of the graves here are foreign soldiers – there is a Commonwealth cemetery, a section for French soldiers, as well as a large section for the Red Army. 

Despite all the tensions between the Poles and the Russians, every single grave has at least one candle on it.  We saw many people carrying bags of candles to add randomly or just re-lighting candles that had blown out.  By the time dusk falls, the whole place is flickering. 

(At first I was concerned that it would be inappropriate to take photos.  But then I saw a nun doing it, so I figured I was good.)

The Commonwealth cemetery for British soldiers from WWI and WWII

A monument for Polish army soldiers

You would think that going to the cemetery would be a somber occasion, but it really isn’t.  There’s a fairly informal atmosphere, complete with drinking:  we even saw a plastic champagne cork on the ground.  Unfortunately, this also results in many people drinking and driving.  This year, there were 33 deaths, almost 400 injuries, and 1,000 drunk driving arrests.  Because of the huge police presence, this was the lowest death toll in 10 years. 

We also had a few other reasons to celebrate on November 1st.

Eric was promoted to major!  Hooray!  Here’s a photo from our last promotion in California:

(I can’t believe this picture is over 6 years old…)  Note the sweet OPFOR uniforms.

Also, my parents celebrated their 40^th wedding anniversary!  Congratulations!

My brother and his wife also celebrated their fifth anniversary this weekend. 

So, hooray for everybody!  Wszytkiego najlepszego!

Only nine days until the next multi-purpose holiday:  November 11th.  It’s Veterans’ Day (America), Independence Day (Poland), and St. Martin’s Day (Poznań).