On All Souls’ Day, observed on 2 November, the day after the Catholic All Saints’ Day, thousands of Poles visited the graves of loved ones - while actors, musicians, journalists and community leaders took to cemeteries with collection tins to help preserve monuments and support those in need.
At Warsaw’s Powązki Cemetery, one of Poland’s oldest and most significant burial grounds, the annual charity collection was held for the 51st time.
From left: actor Jacek Kawalec, singer Alicja Majewska and journalist and comedian Artur Andrus (photo: FOTON/PAP)
Funds raised will go toward the restoration of centuries-old gravestones - more than 1,700 monuments have already been repaired over the past five decades.
Among the volunteers were well-known cultural figures, city officials and students, all joining efforts to safeguard what many see as an open-air museum of Polish history.
From left: model Helena Norowicz and actresses - Anna Romantowska and Laura Łącz (photo: FOTON/PAP)
Similar events took place in other parts of the country, including Kraków in the south, Łódź in central Poland, Szczecin in the northwest, Opole in the southwest, Kalisz in the west, and other cities, where local communities have for decades raised money to protect neglected graves and memorials.
In many places, the collections were accompanied by concerts, art events and community clean-ups, blending remembrance with civic engagement.
Among those collecting donations at Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery in 2025 were volunteers dresses in traditional Polish noble attire known as kontusz, as well as scouts selling memorial candles (photo: PAP/Albert Zawada)
In Poland, early November carries a deep cultural and emotional significance. The twin observances of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are moments of quiet reflection but also of unity.
As dusk falls, cemeteries across the country glow with millions of flickering candles, their warm light and the scent of paraffin rising into the autumn air - a poignant symbol of a nation’s enduring remembrance and its bond between the living and the dead.
(photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański)
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Source: Radio Poland/IAR/PAP