I'm assured that this isn't really the city where nobody lives, it's was just a public holiday weekend. But bank holiday weekends in Belfast don't clean the city out. It might be nice if they did. All Saints and All Souls' Day in Poland is a day where everything closes and people return home to visit the graveyards of family and friends and lay candles, not only in commemoration but also as a means of lighting the way in the darkness for those souls that are lost. It's creepy and poetic all at once. So we did a little research and found one of the largest city centre graveyards to go and see and despite the freezing cold and rain, I have to say, it was the best way I've ever celebrated Halloween.
The walls of the graveyard were lined with people selling flowers and candles of all colours, shapes and sizes. If it was home, you could be sure that somebody would use the opportunity to turn a profit but not here. You could buy a pretty little candle and holder for 3 zlotys, the equivalent of 60p. I contemplated buying some and bringing them home to lay on my Grannies grave because I fell in love with the idea and the sincerity of it all.
The graveyard itself was something else. Yes, it was eerie and it felt like somebody or something was watching me the entire time, but it was also beautiful. Just imagine a graveyard covered in coloured candles. Every grave and the pathways around the church all lit up. Some graves had maybe 300 candles around it. It verged on festive.
We had a little peek inside the church and found a back yard with hundreds of named plaques on the walls surrounding a painted cross with a glass box embedded in the middle. The yard was again covered in candle-lit dedications and I assumed that these particular souls were those lost in the war but the glass box made me feel uneasy because I didn't know what was in it. I had an idea but I didn't think I could be right. My questions were answered when I heard a Polish tour guide explaining that the plaques represented those that were killed by Stalin's secret police and that the box in the middle held exactly what I thought. A skull with a bullet hole right through the middle. The polish people certainly don't shy away from their past regardless of how dark and tragic it may be. Why should they?
Warsaw is a great city. Any city that can rebuild itself after occupations by Hitler and Stalin is a great city. But one that manages to maintain a cosmopolitan feel and blend that with its old city character is even greater. And any nation that values the sentiment of a single flower the way the Polish people do must be one worth getting to know.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment