An Angel by Candlelight

Everyone loves an angel...and the Poles are no exception. They can be bought as ornaments, decorated on top of your Christmas tree and in the likes of Toruń can be the symbol of a city! Here just for you...is a rather fetching angel beautifully lit by candlelight.

Cemetry lights or BBQ Candles?

Next weekend will be All Saints' Day when all the Poles descend on their local cememtries and leave candles and flowers. It's a really moving occassion, especially walking through the graves and night (with all the twinkling candles).

Talking of which...the grave lights are very popular here...as you can see with the above advertisement. A few years ago, an English friend of mine came to Toruń and but about 20 of these lights thinking they were BBQ lights. He then went back to the UK and invited some Polish friends of his around for the evening. You can imagine the shock and surprise when they entered his garden!! They must have wondered who had just died!!! Hee hee!!!

National Mourning: Toruń at Night

(above photo courtesy of Mark Hoogslag who kindly sent it in)

These images were taken last night, as the sea of candles increases in the main square. The railway carriage is actually a temporary memorial for the Katyn WWII massacre, in which thousands of Polish soldiers were sent to the forests of Katyn and murdered by the Russians. Ironically, it was to the 70th anniversary of Katyn that the Polish Presidential delegation was flying to.