Pretty Photos of All Saints’ Day at Powązki in Warsaw

Thousands of flickering candles adorned the stone graves at Powązki Cemetery (Cmentarz Powązkowski) on Saturday night in Warsaw.

For the first time, we took part in the All Saints’ Day (Wszystkich Świętych in Polish) celebrations on November 1^st. We joined thousands of Poles as they flocked to the local cemeteries to remember and honor their deceased family members and friends by leaving flowers and candles on their graves.

We visited Powązki Cemetery, since it’s a short walk from our apartment, with another couple and their two children. Before we entered, we bought several glass, lantern-like candles that we planned to place on bare graves so the deceased wouldn’t feel “lonely” as we told the kids. My husband also wanted to light a candle in honor of his great-aunt who recently died.

This historic cemetery looked absolutely beautiful! We wandered through row after row of decorated graves and tombstones, just taking in the scenery and witnessing this Polish tradition in person. I’ve never seen anything like this before except perhaps the Warsaw Uprising anniversary events I’ve partaken in since we’ve lived here.

I took many photos, but the daylight soon faded, which made it more difficult. However, the oncoming of dusk made the candles stand out more as we walked through Powązki.

Hope you enjoy my photos of our first All Saints’ Day in Poland!

Have you ever witnessed All Saints’ Day celebrations in your own country or while traveling?

My husband lit a candle on the grave of Violetta Villas, a Belgian-born Polish and international cabaret star, singer, actress, composer and songwriter, who died at age 73 in 2011. During her long career, she recorded almost 300 songs in 10 languages and starred in six films.

Another popular grave was of Gustaw Holoubek, a well-known Polish actor, director, member of the Polish Sejm and a senator in the Polish Parliament. He died in 2008 at the age of 85. Holoubek also survived being a prisoner of war during the Nazi German Occupation of Poland and went on to have a long, successful career in the arts and local politics.

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All Saints’ Day at Powązki: Warsaw’s Oldest Cemetery

November 1^st is a special holiday here in Poland, known as All Saints’ Day in most Catholic countries, or Wszystkich Świętych in Polish.

Today, Poles will flock to the cemeteries to remember and honor their deceased family members and friends by leaving flowers and candles on their graves. Later this afternoon, we plan to visit the Cmentarz Powązkowski, also known as Stare Powązki, a historic cemetery dating  back to 1790, located in the Wola district of Warsaw. Last year, we missed this holiday because we were in Berlin for the long weekend. 

Apparently, the Polish cemeteries, decorated with hundreds of flickering candles and flowers, will really be a sight to behold today. Everyone will be there to celebrate and pray over their deceased loved ones. Volunteers also help to make sure that no grave is left without a candle. I think that’s a nice touch because I’ve seen so many graves in America that look abandoned.

Last year, we visited Powązki Cemetery a few days before All Saints’ Day as part of a special tour to learn more about its history. Dozens of family members were already working on cleaning up leaves and other debris around many of the tombs.

The cemetery is full of ornate, moss-covered tombstones that were created by some of the most renowned sculptors – both Polish and foreign. Between 700,000 to 1.5 million people are buried here.

During World War II, the cemetery served as a shelter for the people and Resistance fighters. Then, during the Soviet occupation, this was the only place where Polish characters were used and the Polish language was spoken in public. The cemetery is full of history.

During the tour, we learned the Powązki Cemetery is the final resting place of many famous historical figures in Polish history, including those interred along the “Avenue of Notables” (Aleja Zasłużonych) established in 1925.

For example, the ancestors of the English and Spanish royal family were descended from Poland. The Battenberg family was a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, rulers of the Grand Duchy of Hesse in Germany. The first member was Julia Hauke, who came from the Warsaw area, and is buried with her husband at Powazki. She is reportedly the great-, great-, grandmother of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.

Other “female angels” mentioned on the tour were:

Izabella Moszczeńska-Rzepecka, a Polish writer and suffragist.

Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska, a well-known Polish composer and pianist from the late 1800s.

Marie Curie-Sklodowska, a Nobel-prize winner in chemistry and physics.

As you can see from these photos, the Powązki Cemetery is an interesting place to explore and photograph. I cannot wait to see what it looks like tonight for All Saints’ Day.

 

Location:

Look for the domed-Kościół pw świętego Karola Boromeusza (St. Charles Borromeo Parish) at the Powązki Cemetery.

Corner of Okopowa and Powązkowska streets

The nearest tram stop is called Powązkowska.

Warsaw, Poland

The facade of the St. Charles Borromeo Parish at the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.

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Visiting the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans

Continuing on my Halloween theme this week, let’s travel to one of my favorite cities in the U.S. – New Orleans!

We loved this southern city so much on our first visit in 2007 that we decided to get married here in 2010. The city’s fantastic food culture and rich French architecture had us smitten!

After the French Quarter and Bourbon Street, one of the popular sites to visit is the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, which is the city’s oldest and most famous cemetery, opened in 1789. This cemetery became the city’s main burial ground after a major city fire in 1788. All the graves here are above-ground vaults, which makes them unique compared to most cemeteries.

For me, coming from Nebraska, the vault-like tombs seemed strange. Some say the above-ground burial customs in New Orleans are because of the low water table, while the other theory is the vaults are based on French and Spanish traditions. The city was founded by the French and briefly served under Spanish rule as well.

The St. Louis Cemetery, though devoid of very little plantlife, is interesting to walk through and admire the different types of architecture. I even took my parents during our weeklong wedding festivities in New Orleans.

The cemetery also is home to several famous New Orleanians such as the renowned Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, born in 1794 or 1801, is believed to be interred in the Glapion family crypt, which is pictured. People mark three “x’s” on Laveau’s tombs and others in hope to get a wish granted. However, the “x’s” are actually vandalism, according to the Save Our Cemeteries Organization, which offers daily cemetery tours.

Even American actor Nicholas Cage has purchased a vault here.

This cemetery may be small, but is home to thousands, and is worth checking out when you visit New Orleans.

Tombstones date back to the early 1800s at the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.

More information:

The Save Our Cemeteries Organization offers daily tours of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 at 10 a.m., and an afternoon tour at 1 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets are $20 and must be purchased in advance online. 

Here’s a detailed map of the cemetery’s layout: http://www.saveourcemeteries.org/images/StL1_Map.

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Jewish Cemetery in Łódź: Where Time Stands Still

I stared out at the rows and rows of haunting tombstones at the Jewish Cemetery in Łódź, which was Poland's second-largest Jewish city before World War II.

I wasn’t prepared to feel so sad and devastated about seeing a cemetery where about 160,000 people are buried. But the Jewish history in Poland and in the rest of Eastern Europe is a tragic one.

The Jewish Cemetery on Bracka Street, established in 1892, sits on 40 hectacres (about 100 acres) and seemed enormous to me. In one section of the cemetery called the “Ghetto Field,” there are about 43,000 victims who died while they were living in awful conditions in the Jewish Ghetto in Łódź during WWII. In total, about 90,000 people have been identified, and the cemetery keeps a database of all the names that they have.

Many parts of the cemetery are covered in tall weeds, rambling vines, decaying branches and green moss.

The farther you wander from the main entrance, the more overgrown and wild the cemetery becomes. Fragments of tombstones lay on the greenery-covered earth. The engravings are faded.

I was lost in my own world, taking photos of the crumbling tombstones and continually questioning, how could the Nazi Germans have treated the Jewish people so horrendously?

In the 18 months that we’ve lived in Poland, I’ve read countless fiction and non-fiction books about WWII and Poland. I still cannot understand it. It’s not something I CAN understand.

To me, seeing the Jewish Cemetery in Łódź was almost as poignant as seeing Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in person. I left with tears in my eyes.

Location:

Jewish Cemetery, ulica Bracka 40

Entrance and car park on ulica Zmienna.

Cost: 6 PLN/person (Admission is free on first Sunday every month.)

Website: http://www.jewishlodzcemetery.org

Surprisingly, there were several fancy mausoleums like these located on the right side of the cemetery. I'm assuming these families must still have living relatives since the grounds were so well maintained.

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