10/17/2026
Just a sample of All Souls Day culture. Join us for our 10/26 class a learn more while creating!
Two little candles. Two graves. A memory I’ve carried ever since. 🕯️
November 1st and 2nd hold a special place in Polish hearts. All Saints’ Day honors all the saints in heaven. The following day, Zaduszki—All Souls’ Day—turns our prayers toward the faithful departed, especially souls in purgatory.
Growing up in Poland, these days meant visiting cemeteries, tending graves, and lighting znicze. Together, they brought remembrance, prayer, and a feeling of closeness to those who were no longer with us.
When I was about 10 or 12, I had a friend whose birthday fell on November 2nd. It wasn’t the easiest day for a child’s birthday in Poland, but we made a little tradition of our own.
We would go to the cemetery with two znicze—grave candles—and find two graves with no candles or flowers. We would light ours for the people resting there, so their graves would have a little light, too.
We didn’t know their names or their stories, so we made up stories about them. We imagined why their graves had no candles and pictured the lives they might have lived—perhaps they had lost a great love, or their families had moved away. In our minds, they became wonderful, unforgettable people.
We returned year after year, until somewhere around high school, life took us down separate paths.
I like to think that, in those moments, the people we visited weren’t forgotten.
All these years later, I still remember those two little flames—and the friend who lit them with me. 🤍
Do you ever light a candle on a grave that otherwise would be dark?
