Comenius "Young Reporters": noviembre 2011

lunes, 14 de noviembre de 2011

COMPETITION FOR THE BEST HALLOWEEN COSTUME

English and American culture has been spread up in Poland since some time and various events connected with Halloween are more and more popular.
This year there has been a competition for the best Halloween costume in our school.
Our students looked really frightening!

ALL SAINTS' DAY OR HALLOWEEN IN POLAND

All Saints' Day is celebrated all over Poland. The first of November is a holiday and people sometimes travel hundreds of kilometers to visit the graves of their family or friends. All day long the cemeteries are lit by burning candles and especially in the evening it gives a magnificent view.
All the cemeteries are visited by crowds of people. They bring flowers, mainly chrysanthemum, and lit candles not only on the graves of their beloved ones but also on the desolated ones.
The best known cemeteries in Warsaw are called Powązki Cemetery and Bródno Cemetery. There are the graves of numerous illustrious Poles in Powązki Cemetery. For example, among them there are Fryderyk Chopin's elder sister, his father, his mother and Józef Elsner, composer, conductor and Chopin's piano teacher.
Since 1975 famous people such as actors, sportsmen, politicians collect money for renovation of the historic tombs in Powązki Cemetery on the first of November. The originator of that custom was Jerzy Waldorff - a writer, columnist, music critic. He was buried there in 1999.
Bródno Cemetery is the biggest cemetery in Warsaw and one of the biggest cemeteries in Europe.
One of our students, Julia Sienkiewicz has taken picures to show you some graves you can find in Warsaw cemeteries.
If you ask foreigners living in Poland whether we celebrate Halloween, they will tell you that Poles celebrate only All Saints' Day. Nevertheless they will add after a while that you will find some decorations in cities, Halloween parties are organised in some clubs and dressing up is popular among young people.