Polish school cancels Halloween party after parent complains to education board

A primary school in Kraków has cancelled a Halloween party following an intervention by the provincial education board, which had received a complaint about the event from a concerned parent.

The celebration of Halloween often arouses controversy in Poland, where some conservatives and the Catholic church criticise it as a dangerous and alien pagan import. The conservative head of the education board in Małopolska Province, where Kraków is located, has previously discouraged schools from celebrating the festival.

Pupils in the third year of Primary School No 34 in central Kraków were today supposed to have a Halloween party, at which they would change into costumes and receive sweets.

However, the parent of one child did not approve of the idea and complained to the education board, which then intervened in the case. As a result, the event was cancelled yesterday morning.

Other parents of children in the class reacted angrily, reports Miasto Pociech, a website for parents and teachers. “Our daughter was very happy about this party; she had already prepared a costume,” said Natalia Nazim. “She is sad that the event has been cancelled, and so are her friends.”

“There are so many church celebrations at school and everyone has to live with them, although not everyone likes it, but one voice of dissatisfaction is enough for Halloween to be cancelled,” another unnamed parent told Gazeta Wyborcza.

When contacted by the newspaper, the headteacher of the school and the provincial education board did not comment on the case.

However, Barbara Nowak, the school superintendent in Małopolska who oversees the education board, has previously made clear her opposition to the organisation of events celebrating Halloween.

In a letter to school headteachers in 2018, she said that they should “exercise great care…when organising events in schools that arouse ideological disputes”. She named Halloween and Rainbow Friday – an annual event to show solidarity with LGBT pupils – as two examples.

“Education serves to develop in young people a sense of love for the homeland and respect for the Polish cultural heritage…built on the Christian system of values,” wrote Nowak, a government appointee, in the letter. Schools should therefore avoid “offending religious feelings”.

Halloween is not traditionally celebrated in Poland, but has become increasingly popular in recent decades. That has, however, prompted a backlash from conservatives, who see it as a threat to children.

“Halloween is anti-Christian and dangerous,” said Bishop Artur Miziński, the secretary-general of Poland’s Catholic episcopate, in 2018. “It promotes the culture of death, pushes [children] towards an esoteric mentality and magic, [and] attacks sacred and spiritual values through Satanic initiations [and] occult images.”

Many in the church instead encourage children and parents to attend alternative “Holy Wins” events, in which young people dress up as their favourite saint. In 2019, the Catholic archdiocese of Kraków celebrated that “for the sixth time in Poronin parish the sanctity [of Holy Wins] beats Halloween.

The church also encourages the holding of All Saints’ Balls to mark the feast day on 1 November during which millions of Poles visit the graves of relatives and national heroes.

In 2018, an MP from Poland’s ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party called on the education ministry to ban the organisation of Halloween events in schools.

In response, defenders of Halloween often argue that it actually has Christian roots (though the festival’s origins remain disputed). They also note that a number of pagan festivals, often with aspects relating to death and magic, are traditionally celebrated in Poland without arousing the anger of conservatives.

Some schools also get around conservative opposition to Halloween by organising events under the name Pumpkin Day. “It’s a way to celebrate without pissing off the [school] catechist,” one parent told TVN24 in 2019.

Main image credit: Julia Raasch/Unsplash

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.