Poles joined the families and visited their loved ones on the All Saints Day observed on 1st November throughout the Catholic world.

The Polish calendar includes many important holidays that are observed on the 1st of November every year, All Saints’ Day. Candles were piled up on the shelves of the supermarket several weeks before. During the day before, street vendors fight over the positions near the gateways of the cemeteries and sell the chrysanthemums and other traditional snacks such as pretzels in Polish, known as obwazanki.

Special bus lines were also introduced in the cities of the country, with their last destinations being the biggest cemeteries. The residents of large cities took the trip towards the suburbs or villages where their parents or grandparents live, to go and pay their respects at the graves of their late relatives and family members. To maintain the peace on the roads, police officers established special patrols, which were jokingly referred to as “Operation Candle,” to ensure that the holiday was peaceful.

It appears that Poland has shut down on Saturday, with people flocking to cemeteries to pay collective tribute to the deceased. Towards the end of the day, when it became dusk, graves, with white and red candles and colorful flowers, placed against the background of the orange autumnal leaves, were warm and comfortable despite the solemn occasion.