lamus-dworski:Dziady / Zaduszki / Pominki - remnants of an ancient Slavic feast celebrated in Poland

lamus-dworski:Dziady / Zaduszki / Pominki - remnants of an ancient Slavic feast celebrated in Poland to commemorate the dead.Nowadays the old customs are merged with the celebrations of the Christian All Souls’ Day [Polish: Dzień Zaduszny or simply Zaduszki], which is held on the Nov 2nd, a day after the All Saints’ Day. Both days of the 1st and the 2nd November are free from work and the people in Poland would often travel even to the other side of the country just to pray on their relatives’ graves.The tradition dates back to the pre-Christian times and the old-Slavic ancestor worship, cult of the dead and the afterlife. Even in the 19th century the ethnographers were noticing that the people were still commonly believing in the death being just a natural from of a transition into the outerworld, which was seen as interwoven with the living world. Souls were seen as eternal and never perishing.People were looking after and praying to their relatives’ souls above all and believing in a certain form of a return that could be compared to reincarnation - souls being able to come back within their ród [bloodline / kinship / tribe], another sign of the strong connection of the living and dead worlds in the Slavic spirituality. Ethnographers were also noting that many people would pray to the “abandoned” souls - spirits of the people who didn’t have anyone living to look after them left on the earth. The living were very particular about preparing the right form of the parting/farewell ceremonies, but also about the wellness of the dead - greeting them during the many forms of Dziady feasts throughout the year, hoping for their supervision and guardianship. And in the very complex Slavic spiritual world and folklore there was a lot to guard from.Sickness and unfortunate events were feared more than the death itself. Souls of the people who passed away in an “unnatural” death or in a “too young” age and also souls of the various criminals were considered restless spirits, unfullfilled or unclean ones. Slavic folklore is full of such mythological creatures - for example the well-known rusałka or topielec, who were the souls of the drowned; boginka, who was a soul of a women died during the labour; wampir or strzyga, who were people that e.g. died by suicide or were not buried/burnt properly after death.Fear of the unfullfilled/unclean forces was constant and so strong, that the protective rites were common in the everyday life - it was believed that any kind of spirit / soul should be taken care of and any good or bad one could be appeased by gifts but also enraged by the mistreatment or forgetfulness.The meaningful Dziady feasts were dedicated solely for the souls of the relatives and the name Dziady could be translated as “Forefathers”. Originally, Dziady were held at least 4 times a year - during the new moon around the winter, spring, summer and autumn equinoxes / solstices. These four dates were seen as very powerful in the nature-oriented Slavic spirituality and the new moon was the best time for the souls to arrive, not being troubled by the strong moonlight.The fixed date of 2nd November, combined with the Christian feast of the All Faithful Departed, had begun to be established around the 14th century in Poland, but even in the 19th century or early 20th century many people would be still performing the old rites, even though often detached from their original meaning. Later the feast was called Zaduszki [translated as a feast for the souls - “dusze” / “duszki”] or in some regions of Poland: Pominki, Wspominki or Wypominki [derived from the word “pamiętać”, meaning “to remember”]. In some parts of Poland it was also believed that the strongest time for the incarnation of the visiting souls - the real night of Dziady - would the the Eve before the All Saints Day, the night between the 31st September / 1st November.During the Dziady / Zaduszki / Pominki, that special transitional time of the year, souls of the dead would return freely to the world of the living. They would often visit the places where they used to live, wander around their favourite locations or just around the cementery, they would also visit various old places of cult. People were preparing for the souls’ visit: cleaning up the houses, leaving small treats of food and drink, also leaving the lit candles to help them warm up [the traditional candle lit up for the Zaduszki that survived in a form of a grave candle is called znicz in Poland]. The path to the house or the place of cult (like the church) would be often lit with many candles. Satisfying the basic needs of the souls was meant to be a way of comforting them and ensuring their assistance.An interesting aspect of the souls’ visit was ther “materiality”. During that special night the souls could sometimes appear looking like the living, but usually they would try to get into the buildings as semi-material beings, e.g. through the cracks in the walls. People would often leave the doors or windows slightly open to help them get in. After the Dziady feast the conductor / oldest person would often sweep the floor to remove the remaining souls that didn’t want to go back to the outerworld. Some souls would hide in the furnitures though, preferably in the main table / dining table, and people would even “keep” them if feeling that they are friendly. The most common remnant of that custom in Poland is the popular “odpukiwanie w drewno” (“knocking on wood”) - unwittingly, the Polish people would preferably knock on the underside of the wooden tabletop. In the old days it was a way of “waking up” the soul hidden there, a protective spirit meant to help preventing the negative factors.On pictures:“Zaduszki” by Witold Pruszkowski, oil on canvas, 1888 [source]Inscenization of Mickiewicz’s “Dziady” in Słupsk, Poland [source]“Dziady” in Konin, Poland [source]“Dziady” spectacle by Narodowy Teatr Edukacji based in Wrocław city [source]Inscenization of “Dziady” in Słupsk, Poland [source]Sources / bibliografia do polecenia, nie tylko o Dziadach:Biegeleisen, Henryk “Śmierć w obrzędach, zwyczajach i wierzeniach ludu polskiego”, 1930Kolankiewicz Leszek “Dziady. Teatr święta zmarłych”, 1999Ogrodowska Barbara “Zwyczaje, obrzędy i tradycje w Polsce”, 2001“Obyczaje w Polsce (…)”, praca zbiorowa pod red. Andrzeja Chwalby, 2008 -- source link
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