While American Halloween traditions - of trick-or-treating, going to costume parties and generally celebrating the spooky or macabre - are becoming increasingly common in increasingly secular Polish society, Halloween in Poland remains a somber (and sober) time to respectfully remember those who have passed away.

 
All Saints' Day in Gniezno. On this day, every cemetery in Poland looks as such! Photo by Diego Delso, delso.photo, License CC-BY-SA

The Complex Origins of Halloween & All Saints' Day

While the origins of what is referred to as a 'day of Christian solemnity' are somewhat mixed, it's generally agreed that these traditions originated in the far east of the Roman Empire in the 4th century CE. At that time, however, these commemorations of Christian martyrs usually took place around   April and May, and the Eastern Orthodox calendar similarly observes All Saints' Sunday after Pentecost in late May/early June. Although this custom had become fairly mainstream in Central and Western Europe by the 5th and 6th century CE, it did not become official until Pope Gregory IV made All Saints' Day an authorised holiday in the Catholic Church in 835 CE.  The reasons behind November 1st becoming the designated date are heavily influenced by the customs of Anglo-Saxons, Franks and Celts, specifically those that coincided with the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the 'darker-half' of the year. This period would later became known in western European traditions as '