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November • Listopad

All Saints Day

All Saints Day is a very special occasion in Poland. Millions travel across the country to visit family graves and of their dear ones lighting candles and laying flowers and wreaths. The biggest cemeteries in major cities are crowded and roads leading to them congested with traffic. Many of the cemeteries have the status of historical sites with centuries old monuments.

It was believed that during the days of Zaduszki in the autumn, the spirits of deceased relatives visited their old homes by gathering near the windows or on the left side of the main doorway. Eventually, it was believed that as they entered the house, they would warm themselves by the home’s hearth and search for the commemoration meal prepared for them. Prior to returning to the Otherworld, the souls went to church for a special nighttime mass by the dead priest’s soul. The living were not allowed to watch the dead; those who broke this rule would be punished severely.

As state funds are hardly adequate in face of the actual needs for restoration works, volunteers, mainly well-known actors and artists are collecting money from the visitors. Prime examples of such cemeteries with extraordinary historical value are Powazki in Warsaw and the Rakowicki cemetery in Krakow, considered the biggest such necropolis in Europe.

November 1 is also an occasion to pay respect to those who sacrificed their lives for Polish independence or had been the victims of tragic events in the country’s turbulent history. Candles are also lit at these special commemorative places. In Chelmno, tribute was paid to the victims of the first mass death camp established on Polish soil by the German Nazis during World War II. It is estimated that close to 300 thousand people, mainly Jews, had perished there.

All Saints Day is a religious holiday of Catholic origin. Nevertheless, it is also observed by many other denominations in Poland. Celebrations of All Saints Day on November 1st had been established in the 9th century by pope Gregory IV. Previously they were held on May 1.

Wyszyscy swieci niezgoda,

wiatry z śniegiem zawioda.

All Saints in discord,

winds with snow will disappoint.

1880. Birth of Polish-born Jewish American novelist Sholem Asch, author of “The Nazarene” and “The Apostle, Mary.”

1987. Pope John Paul II meets with USSR president, Mikhail Gorbacev.

1777. Casimir Pułaski joins U.S. forces.

1822. Birth in Wojutyn in Volinia in present-day Ukraine of founder of Russian Catholicism Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski (d. 1895), Archbishop of Warsaw and founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary. Pope John Paul II beatified him August 18, 2002.

All Soul’s Day

Dzien Zaduszny or Zaduszki. A national holiday in Poland to memorialize the deceased.

1942. Birth of actress Stephanie Powers (Stefania Federkiewicz).

1944. Nazis begin gassing inmates at Auschwitz in Occupied Poland.

1857. Birth of Joseph F. F. Babinski, Polish-French neurologist (Babinski reflex).

1921. Birth of Ukrainian-Polish actor Charles Bronson (d. Aug. 30, 2003).

1788. Piotr Stadnicki loans United States $15 million and forms the Holland Land Company.

1982. Funeral of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko at the Church of Saint Stanislaus Kostka in Warsaw. He was tortured and murdered by communist officials for his support of the Solidarity labor union. An estimated 100,000 attended the funeral.

St. Hubert

Traditional beginning of hunting season in Poland.

1716. Signing of the Pacification Treaty of Warsaw. Czar Peter the Great (1672-1725) guarantees Saxon monarch August I’s (1682-1718) Polish kingdom.

1806. Greater Poland Uprising begins.

1231. Death of Władysław III Spindleshanks.

1923. Birth of Connecticut polka music legend Ray Henry (Henry Mocarski).

1910. First edition of Glos Polek.

1930. First regular broadcast of the weekly Fr. Justin Rosary Hour, once the oldest Polish language radio program in the United States.

1949. Joseph Mruk elected first Polish American Mayor of Buffalo, N.Y.

1990. Douglas Wakiihuri of Kenya and Wanda Panfil of Poland won the New York City Marathon.

1612. Russia drives Catholic Poles and Lithuanians out of Moscow. This marked the end of the “Time of Troubles,” a period of popular uprisings and fighting between noblemen and pretenders to the throne. Russian Orthodox Church celebrated this day as the victory of the forces of Eastern Orthodoxy over the forces of Western Catholicism. In 2005 Russia chose this day for the new “People’s Unity Day” holiday.

1790. Birth of violinist Karol Lipinski.

1937. Birth of television, film and stage actress Loretta Swit (M*A*S*H).

1916. Signing of the Act of November 5th, a declaration of Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria. This act promised the creation of the Kingdom of Poland out of partitions, envisioned by its authors as a puppet state controlled by the Central Powers.

1734. Dzików Confederation formed, a military organization of supporters of Stanisław I during the War of the Polish Succession, which sought political independence from Saxony and Russia for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

1370. Death of Kazimierz III the Great (b. 1330).

1904. Death of poet Karol Brzozowski, whose work influenced Turkey’s Constitution.

2003. Two American soldiers were killed near Baghdad and along the Syrian border. Polish forces suffered their first combat death when a Polish major was fatally wounded in an ambush south of the capital.

1657. Signing of the Treaty of Bydgoszcz.

1860. Birth of Ignancy Jan Paderewski, pianist, statesman and prime minister, in Kurylowce, Poland (d. 1941).

1939. Nazis arrest 182 instructors at Jagiellonian University, who are then sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

1949. Communists appoint Soviet Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky minister of defense and commander-in-chief of Poland’s army.

1867. Birth of chemist and physicist Marie Sklodowska Curie (d. 1934) in Warsaw, Poland. She was born Marya Salomee Sklodowska. Her discoveries included polonium, radium, which she isolated from pitchblende, and the radioactivity of thorium. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903 with her husband, and in chemistry in 1911.

1967. Supreme Court Justice Matthew J. Jasen (1916-2006), of Buffalo, becomes first Polish American to be elected to the Court of Appeals, New York State’s highest court.

1946. Fr. Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), says first Mass at his parish church in Wadowice.

1412. Signing of the Treaty of Lubowla.

1632. Election of Władysław IV Vasa.

1673. Death of Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki, ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from September 29, 1669, to his death.

1444. Death at Battle of Varna of King Władysław III (b. Oct. 31, 1424), also known as Władysław of Varna. He was king of Poland from 1434, and King of Hungary from 1440, until his death.

1945. Founding of the Polish Institute of History in Rome.

1914. Buffalo, N.Y. native Joseph A. Rozan appointed Polish interpreter to the Supreme Court.

St. Martin.

Goose is traditional meal of the day in Poland. A winter weather forecast is then made according to the color of breastbone–white (much snow); mottled (variable ); black (light); black and white (mixed).

Gdy Marcinowa gęś po wodzie,

będzie Boże Narodzienia po lodzie.

If geese (land) on water today, it will be on ice for Christmas

Dzień Świętego Marcina,

dużo gęsi zarzyna.

St. Martin’s Day slaughters many geese.

Na Marcina, gęś do komina.

On St. Martin’s Day the goose goes in the oven.

Na Św. Marcina

Najlepsza gesina

Patrz na piersi i na kości

Jaka zima nam zagści

The bone of the goose is the best

way to predict this winter’s test.

Wesele Marcina, gesi i dzban wina.

A wedding on St. Martin’s Day - a goose and a pitcher of wine.

Swiety Marcin bloniem, jedzie bialym koniem.

St. Martin in the pastures rides a white horse.

1918. Independence of Poland is reestablished by the Central Powers during World War I.

1939. Nazis arrest professors at the Catholic University of Lublin.

1982. Lech Wałęsa released from internment.

St. Josephat

1842. Birth of Blessed Frances Siedliska, foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

1892. Birth of Stefan Pawel Mierzwa, founder and first director of the Kościuszko Foundation.

1939. Nazi Germany orders Jews in Lodz, Poland to wear yellow star of David.

St. Stanislaus Kostka

1989. Polish labor leader Lech Walesa received the Medal of Freedom from President Bush during a White House ceremony.

1990. Signing of German-Polish Border Treaty.

1954. Birth of Polish president (1995-2005) Aleksander Kwasniewski.

1916. Death of Henryk Sienkiewicz, 70, Polish novelist (“Quo Vadis”), 1905 Nobel literature prize winner, in Vevey, Switzerland.

1939. Nazis began their mass murder of Warsaw Jews.

Our Lady of Ostra Brama

A shrine founded today in Wilno (Lithuania), is regarded as the second most sacred to Polish people.

1794. General Tomasz Wawrzecki (1753–1816) surrenders to Russian troops, marking the end of the Kościuszko Uprising, which began March 24. Wawrzecki was kept prisoner until 1796, when he was set free by Paul I of Russia and returned to Lithuania. During the existence of the Duchy of Warsaw he collaborated with the Russians. Afterwards Alexander I of Russia made him the minister of justice of the Kingdom of Poland. He died on August 5, 1816 in Widze, where he was buried.

1846. Free City of Kraków incorporated into the Austrian Empire.

1991. Pope John Paul II canonizes Bl. Raphael Kalinowski (1835-1907) in St. Peter's Basilica. An estimated two million people watch from Vatican City broadcast.

1370. Coronation of Louis of Hungary.

1891. Ignacy Paderewski gives his first concert in America.

1951. Brunon Kryger, Sr., died, age 52, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He popularized “Kotki Dwa” and many other Polish folk songs during his career as a band leader.

1655. Swedes besiege the Jasna Gora monastery.

1738. Treaty of Vienna concludes the War of the Polish Succession.

1986. Solidarity admitted to the International Labor Organization

ST. RAPHAEL KALINOWSKI

1942. Bruno Schulz (b.1892), Polish writer and graphic artist, shot and killed by a German officer (a rival of Schulz’s German protector) while walking back home toward Drohobycz Ghetto with a loaf of bread. Schulz was born to Jewish parents. He is regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. In 1938, he was awarded the Polish Academy of Literature’s prestigious Golden Laurel award. Several of Schulz’s works were lost in the Holocaust, including short stories from the early 1940s and his final, unfinished novel “The Messiah.” In 1992 Theatre de Complicite created their play “The Street of Crocodiles” based on the life and work of Schulz.

1438. Death of sculptor Wit Stwosz.

1995. Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former member of the Communist party, is elected president of Poland, replacing Solidarity trade union leader Lech Walesa.

1648. Election of John II Casimir Vasa.

1815. Krakow declares itself a free republic.

1914. Birth of Polish actor-director Henryk Tomaszewski.

1855. Founding of the Felician Sister order.

1920. Birth of Stan Musial, famed baseball star with the St. Louis Cardinals.

1980. Eighteen Communist Party secretaries in 49 provinces were ousted in Poland. Edward Gierek (d.2001), Communist boss, was among the ousted.

1948. Death of Cardinal August Hlond, primate of Poland. (b. 1881).

2005. Poland’s two leading newspapers blacked out large sections of their front pages in an eye-catching protest against media repression in neighboring Belarus.

1227 Assassination of Leszek I the White.

1881. First issue of Polish National Alliance publication Zgoda.

1933. Birth of composer Krzysztof Penderecki, in Debica, Poland (d. March 29, 2020).

1939. German Governor General of Nazi-occupied Poland Hans Frank requires Jews to wear a blue star.

ST. CATHERINE

After World War I, St. Catherine Church became a symbol of Polish patriotism as the church of Polish army.

The name of the church comes from the chapel of St. Catherine founded in 1360 by the Municipal Council of The New City of Torun. According to the legend, nuns living here initiated the baking of gingerbreads called Catherine’s (katarzynki). This word may be associated with the great annual fairs held on St. Catherine’s day during which the products of Torun gingerbread makers were especially popular. The present church was constructed in the neo-Gothic style at the end of the 19th century.

2005. Poland’s defense minister signed an order that will give researchers access to most of the Warsaw Pact’s top-secret archives, including decisions related to the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.

1990. Poland held its first popular presidential election. Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, who received a plurality of votes, won a runoff the following month.

1914. German Field Marshal Fredrich von Hindenburg called off Lodz Offensive, 40 miles from Warsaw, Poland. The Russians lost 90,000 to the Germans lost 35,000 in two weeks of fighting.

1764. Coronation of Stanislaw August Poniatowski, St. John’s Cathedral, Warsaw.

1795. Abdication of the last king of Poland, Stanislaw August Poniatowski.

1957. Matthew J. Jasen (Jasinski), of Buffalo, becomes the first Polish American to serve on the New York State Supreme Court.

1938. Poland renewed non-aggression pact with the USSR to protect against a German invasion. The treaty was violated shortly after Germany’s invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939.

1940. Nazis force a half-million Jews of Warsaw to live within a walled ghetto.

1913. Russia forbids Polish congregation of speakers.

1855. Death of Polish poet and author Adam Mickiewicz in Constantinople (b. 1798).

1961. “Pic-a-Polka” live television show premiers on WGR TV Channel 2 in Buffalo, N.Y.; with host Joe Macielag. It would air Sundays at 5:00 p.m. for four years and become one of the station’s most popular programs.

2002. Daniel Baraniuk (27) from Gdańsk, Poland, set a new pole-sitting world record, coming down from his perch in a German fun park after 196 days and nights.

1958. Death of Artur Rodzinski (b. 1892), Polish conductor and composer.

1815. Adoption of Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland.

1939. Death of Gabriel Sovulewski (b. 1866), builder of hundreds of miles of tourist routes in California’s Yosemite National Park.

1561. Signing of Wilno Pact.

1058. Death of Kazimierz I Restaurator (b.1015), grand duke of Poland (1034-58). He succeeded in reuniting the central Polish lands under the hegemony of the Holy Roman Empire, but he was never crowned king.

1806. French forces led by Joachim Murat, Marshal and Grand Admiral of France, entered Warsaw.

1948. Birth of Polish film director Agnieskza Holland.

ST. ANDREW’S EVE

Andrzejki brings a fortune telling for mostly unmarried young ladies. Rituals predict which female in the household will get married next or help to describe the man they will marry.

1830. November Uprising, also known as the Cadet Revolution, an armed rebellion in partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire.

St. Andrew

1926. Birth in Wilno, Poland of Andrew Schally, winner of 1977 Nobel Prize in Medicine.