Traditions

Halloween had arrived in Warsaw. Until now we had had a lot of different kind of tasks in our program. What are our competences and how to improve them? How they affect our learning path through the our EVS -projects? Main points of EVS are not only to do work and affect but also to give us an opportunity to improve ourselves and prepare us for the "real life". Discussing about polish culture and differences, things we don't understand or want to learn more about. Exploring Warsaw and polish culture through different topics including for example art, music, interesting places and architecture (which was the topic of my group, from the point of view of communist and post-communist times and how the differences can be seen now). 

On the last of october we had a surprise marked on the schedule for the evening. Nobody knew what to actually expect but I was happily surprised. We got to see traditional polish dances from different parts of Poland, with traditional costumes and music. And of course we got to learn some dances.

I would actually even be very interested to see if there would be some kind of courses for this. I can not  really dance but the easiest dances are actually very simple and it's just so fun. There's a lot of interaction between the dancers and the audience and it's really something i could see myself spending my nights on for entertainment.

One of the best things to be a part of this kind of international network and group is to be able to share cultures with other people. Our group got to know the Halloween culture of Warsaw after the dancing lesson, when we headed to the city for a night out. The next day we had a group discussion about how actually we celebrate halloween and the first of november in our own countries. I never grew up in a religious environment, but I present my country's culture in general but just as well as from my own point of view. It was very interesting to hear from others, it's basically the same celebration in every country but there is so many differencies on how they celebrate it.

I already heard before that the first of november in Poland is reallysomething to experience. It's one of the biggest days in Poland and I was fortunate to be in the big city on this day. For sure it would be just as beautiful -if not even more beautiful- in smaller towns but in the afternoon we headed to the biggest cemetary in Warsaw to see this. On this day the polish people go to the cemetaries to light up candles and bring flowers to memorize the ones who passed away. But it's much more than what I've used to in Finland. Really the whole town comes, they light candles for not only for the people who were close to them. There is also a whole part of the cemetary for important people like actors, musicians and so on, and their graves are filled with candles and letters and flowers.

I had never seen a cemetary as big as this one. The cemetary itself was huge but also the graves were huge, decorative and many of them even had photos of the ones laying in them. Also I never really saw anything like this. It was so beautiful not even pictures can explain. The whole cemetary was filled with hundreds and thousands of candles and as the night got darker the gloom they produced, the warmness they brought to the november night, was one of the most beautiful things I ever experienced. Unfortunately I didn't get any good shots during the darker hours.

I also did light a candle for those who have passed. This was really meaningful me from many aspects. Like doing it here, in Poland, away from my family and home.

Listopad, niemal konie świata, kilka minut przed zmierzchem.