Dzień Zaduszny w liturgii i tradycji ludowej

Abstract

Faith in life after death is known in all societies and cultures. Depending on the system of beliefs and religion a man forms and tries to imagine life or the state after death. Most living people depict existence after death as a continuation of earthly life in another reality. Generally these images are similar to one another, i.e. the souls of the dead ones live their own, different kind of life, but they maintain certain human features and needs. The living want to meet the needs of those who have moved to eternity, and they do so on feasts devoted to worshipping the dead. The article presents the celebrations of All Souls’ Day in the liturgy of the Western Church and in folk tradition, taking into consideration both the old and contemporary customs and celebrations, so characteristic of All Souls’ Day, prevailing in Poland, and especially in the Opoczno and Radom regions. In the description of this issue the author uses literature of the subject, and when presenting folk customs and celebrations he bases his description on his own ethnographic field studies. The memory concerning the dead ones and care of the places of their eternal rest can be seen during the whole calendar year. However, they acquire a special dimension on days devoted to the memory of the dead, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. In folk beliefs the conviction can be encountered that the dead, despite their staying in a different reality, do not lose touch with their families and dear ones, that they commune with the living and take part in family events and that they are interested in their lives, and hence they should be supported with care and prayer. This is why even at the break of the 19th century on the feast of the dead fires were lit for them and a special kind of bread called “podpłomyki” was baked, some noisy work in the house and the household was avoided, and also such work was not done as spinning threads, sewing and winding on a loom, so that not to disturb the souls visiting their own homes. Evangelization of those regions by the Church has not liquidated all those beliefs and imaginations concerning life after death. Church liturgy, consolidating faith in immortality of the human soul, positively influences cultivating some old beliefs and rites, e.g. the possibility of giving help to souls performing penance in the purgatory, and actually motivates believers to remember about the dead. Rational justification of faith in life after death encourages one in his everyday life to think about the dead, to offer them the gift of the heart, that is of personal prayer and the prayer of an ecclesiastic community (requesting a Holy Mass and fully participating in it, receiving the Holy Communion for the intention of the dead, “wypominki”, that is prayers for the dead on All Souls’ Day, personal mortification offered for the dead, giving alms, more frequent visiting graves of the dead with praying for them). Joining old beliefs about life after death with modern ones causes that contemporary inhabitants of the regions with stronger faith and more optimistically look into the future awaiting each human being.