All Saints’ Day is a national holiday in Poland.
Special church services are held to commemorate the saints, while families lay flowers and light candles at gravesides. Many travel hundreds of kilometres to cemeteries in home towns or those where cherished family members are buried.
The tradition continues through to All Souls’ Day, on November 2.
This year, because the increasing number of coronavirus infections in the country, to prevent people crowding at cemeteries and raising the risk of infection, administration as well as Church authorities encouraged Poles to pay their respects either before the holiday, or in the following week.
On Friday afternoon, PM Mateusz Morawiecki announced that a decision had been taken to close cemeteries to the public over the All Saints' and All Souls' weekend, between 31 October and 2 November.
Source: IAR/PAP