The night of a thousand shining lights
Poland grinds to a standstill on All Saints' Day, says Jonathan Luxmoore, as even ardent atheists head to cemeteries to honour the dead
31 October 2008

Cemeteries are crowded with candles on All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day in Poland

In the sullen, damp air of an autumn evening, flower-strewn crosses and marble tombstones are illuminated by the glow of candles, flickering in their thousands against a dark backdrop of gently rustling pines and birches. On the narrow walkways between groups of people, young and old, huddle silently over the grave surfaces, carefully weeding and clearing. Over a distant loudspeaker the voice of a priest intones prayers and meditations.

That scene will be repeated at hundreds of locations throughout Poland this weekend as the traditional All Saints' Day observances reach their poignant climax. Anyone who has not witnessed this national festival has missed a phenomenon that has survived essentially unchanged through centuries of war and occupation.

Despite two decades of secularisation since the fall of Communism, remembering the dead remains an ingrained part of Polish life. It speaks volumes about the contrasts between religious and secular societies.

According to surveys 97 per cent of the country's 38 million inhabitants, irrespective of class or creed, converge on the cemeteries for All Saints' Day. A quarter take extra days off work to pay homage to dead relatives, often travelling hundreds of miles, while a similar proportion also places candles and flowers at military cemeteries and national monuments.

Stanis_awa Grabska, a veteran Catholic theologian, explains: "The grave's existence has greatest importance for the living, as a symbol of their faith in the resurrection. We believe the dead are the same people that we knew - with the one difference that they have reached their goal, while we are still on the way."

In Warsaw alone around five per cent of the city area is occupied by burial grounds, ranging from Europe's largest, Wólka W_glowa, to the historic Pow_zki Cemetery, where the remains of Poland's Communist bosses lie not far from the unmarked graves of their own political prisoners, alongside countless victims of wars and uprisings.

At least 30,000 police are deployed nationwide each year to ease congestion around main cemeteries, where specially positioned lorries and stands do a roaring trade in items ranging from wreaths to candyfloss. Each year up to three dozen Poles join their deceased relatives unexpectedly early in over 300 road accidents.

All Saints' Day remained a public holiday under Communist rule when it was renamed Wszystkich Zmar_ych, the Day of the Dead. Today, though public confidence in Poland's predominant Catholic Church appears to have ebbed, the festival offers a reminder of the undimmed vitality of religious practices.

Up to 98 per cent of Polish citizens still describe themselves as Catholics, while well over a third claim to attend church weekly. Nine out of 10 say they fast on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and Christmas Eve, while three quarters of all families have their crosses blessed on Palm Sunday and join the annual street processions at Corpus Christi.

While devotion rates are highest among the over-60s, the youngest generation of under-19s claims second place in religiosity. Every other household in country areas and one out of four in large towns recite family prayers - a national average of 38 per cent.

The contrast with western societies is particularly marked in attitudes to death. In a survey by Poland's CBOS organisation, more than half of citizens said they had been present at the death of a relative, while well over a third had helped prepare a body for burial. Two-thirds believed loved ones should die at home among family members, while over half thought children should be present at deaths and funerals as much as adults, and 56 per cent were convinced people should "think about death and prepare for it".

Teresa Bogucka, a Warsaw journalist, thinks the popularity of festivals like All Saints' Day reflects an identification with holiness and leisure which underlines the unusual nature of religious holidays.

"Feast days replace the monotony of everyday life with a renewed concentration on family and society that comes from repeating the same actions together at the same time and place," she points out.

"This brings an intensive sense of oneness with ancestors and contemporaries which creates an instinctive readiness to follow the time-honoured rules."

Strikingly, the most popular Christian feasts in Poland are marked as much by declared atheists as by believers. This suggests that non-Catholics also wish to maintain some link with Church and religion, and to ensure that, when the times comes, their mortal remains will also be treated with fitting reverence.

It also confirms that the survival of the Christian faith is linked to the durability of social bonds and cultural traditions. Come what may, the candles of All Saints' Day will go on shining amid the night breezes of a material world.