11/1/13
Today is officially Agata’s 21st birthday and All Saints Day. It was a jam packed day.
After sleeping for four hours, I had to take a warm shower to wash away the remains of last night. I slept from 5:30 am to 9:30 am. I must not have hit REM sleep because I wasn’t that tired when I woke up.
I dressed up on black stockings, a black skirt, and a floral purple sweater. It felt nice to dress up. At the breakfast table, Agata confessed to still being drunk from last night. My host dad kissed my hand and thanked me for staying with Agata.
We then drove to the church for the special Sunday mass. Agata wore sunglasses in church to block out the light. Everyone wore their best Sunday clothes for this spiritual holiday. A little girl wore pink boots, white stockings with pink flowers, a pink dress, a Hello Kitty pocket book, and a pink hat on her two braided pig tails. There were two little boys wearing sweater vests and bottom down shirts tucked into their pants. I wonder what everyone wears for Christmas.
When church ended at 2 pm, we went home to set up the table for when our family comes over. Our whole family came over to eat dinner around 2:30. I was stuffed after eating pasta, meat, and salads. I love feeling stuffed because during the week I never feel full.
While the adults were chatting at the dinner table; Monika, Ania, Agata, and I watched a movie. The movie was an American movie so under the polish commentator, I could hear the English. It takes a lot of effort to zone in only on the English words.
Ania and Monika left for the church around 4pm and that’s when we left for the commentaries. We walked through 4 commentaries to light candles on the graves of loved friends and family. My family would tell me about each person we honored then pray silently before leaving the grave. One lady was my host mother’s nanny but she was more like an aunt to my mama. One man was killed in a car accident in Italy and used to have close relations with my host parents. This man sent a basket of roses to my parents for their wedding but then shortly died after. Another man was in the process of being a priest but decided to get married to his fiancé instead. The day before his wedding, he passed away. My parents say that people believe that God was not happy with his decision not to be priest so that explains the man’s sudden death. The fiancé wore her wedding dress to the funeral.
In Poland, they honor these people (friends or family) by visiting their graves on this special day every year. People light candles, pray for the souls, and sometimes eat dinner next to the graves in a way to include the dead. It is an emotional day because it brings back memories of each person.
We also visited Majdanek Concentration Camp Memorial to honor the people who died in the concentration damp and in Lublin during World War II. We lit a candle and left it under the Majdanek structure.
After walking for hours looking for graves in the cold weather, our family came back over our house for supper. Agata’s friends came over as well to celebrate her birthday. One guy kept forgetting that Agata’s room is now my room so he walked into the room a couple times and took pictures with my things. I didn’t mind because it technically isn’t my room.
Even though we have this day in America, it was interesting to see how the Polish people honor the soul and saints. It was a day to remember my passed family members and friends. Though they aren’t physically with us every day, they are carried in our hearts. Today just reminded their souls that we never forgot about them.
Stephanie Raquel
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