Toruń November 1 : All Saints' Day - All Soul's Day

During All Saint's Day (Wszystkich Świętych) and All Soul's Day (Święto zmartłych) the public transport is on standby.

The City Department of Communications in Torun, produced a special resolution associated with the feast of All Saints and line 61 was put on to the Municipal Cemetery.

On the graveyards you see a lot of coloured candles and it looks like a disco.

Alas a lot of accidents take place, for there are so many (too many?) people on the road.

An interesting link (in Dutch) is:

http://www.pluspost.nl/geen-halloween-wel-een-massale-run-op-de-begraafplaatsen/20586

(picture from agencja gazeta)

Toruń Eastern

Like this an Easter table may look like.

Eastern is celebrated on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon.

It requires a complicated calculation to predict when Eastern will fall.

That’s why it is easier to say that Eastern falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring.
Next year, in 2010, it will be the 4th of March.

He….. that’s not after March 21 when spring starts!
That's right. At March 21 starts the astronomic spring. The calculation of Eastern however is based on the meteorological calendar and that means that spring is from March 1 till the end of May.

Toruń Easter basket

One of the traditions around Eastern is the blessing of the Easter basket on Easter Saturday.
The idea behind it is that the people celebrate the end of the fast period.

A small basket is filled with at least an egg, bread, salt, and a polish sausage.
You can add other food that you like to eat at breakfast like sweets, ham and whatever you like.

Then the children and elder people go to the church what is always a nice sight, seeing people from all directions with their decorated baskets.

In the church a priest blesses the baskets with holy water.
Mostly there are several shifts, often every half an hour.

The tradition is that all family members start the Easter breakfast by eating
something out of the blessed basket before they continue to eat the rest of their tasteful breakfast.

Toruń Nieuwjaar / New Year 2009

No better start for the New Year then this picture on Stary Rynek in Toruń.

Geen mooiere start voor het Nieuwe Jaar dan deze foto op de Stary Rynek in Torun.

This blog will mainly be updated when I am in Toruń

Deze blog zal voornamelijke bijgewerkt worden wanneer ik in Toruń ben.