Polish cities encourage more environmentally friendly grave decorations ahead of All Saints’ Day

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

As millions of Poles prepare to leave candles and other decorations at the graves of loved ones on All Saints’ Day, many cities are encouraging and helping them to reuse candle holders and reduce other forms of waste in an effort to save money and protect the environment.

Around All Saints’ Day, which falls on 1 November, cemeteries in Poland are filled with people visiting graves. In 2022, Poles spent an estimated 1 billion zloty (€330 million) on items relating to the holiday, including around 600-700 million zloty on candles alone, reported the Polityka weekly.

That results in huge amounts of waste, most of which ends up in landfills rather than being recycled, warned the Polish Recycling Association last year. In response, some municipalities around the country have tried to find ways to reduce waste.

Earlier this month, the Union of Polish Metropolises, which brings together Poland’s largest cities, issued a joint appeal with the Polish Ecumenical Council for people to show “respect for the dead and for nature” on All Saints’ Day.

“Introducing selective waste collection, limiting the number of candles and artificial flowers, and promoting natural forms of gravestone decorations are steps that will allow us to honour the memory of our loved ones while taking care of the planet,” said Tadeusz Truskolaski, the union’s president and the mayor of Białystok.

Today, Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city, reminded residents that it provides containers in municipal cemeteries in which people can leave used candle holders and other people can take them for re-use.

“This solution is beneficial for residents not only financially, but also ecologically, so that while remembering loved ones, we also take nature into account,” said deputy mayor Łukasz Sęk.

Business Insider Polska notes that the first such collection points for candle holders appeared in Warsaw’s Northern Cemetery, where they were funded as part of the so-called civic budget, in which local residents can decide how some municipal money is spent.

Now similar schemes are run in dozens of places around the county, including Łomianki, Płock, Częstochowa, Poznań and Świdnik. Poland’s chief inspectorate of environmental protection last year encouraged Poles to make use of them.

A city councillor in the city of Łódź, Magdalena Gałkiewicz, also suggests that people use candles made from more environmentally friendly materials, such as soy wax, reports Polsat News.

The broadcaster notes that soaring inflation over the last two years has led many Poles to reuse candle holders as a cost-saving measure.

In its appeal this year, the Union of Polish Metropolises suggests that people should only light one lamp on a grave; should use natural decorations (such as twigs, leaves and dried flowers) instead of artificial ones; and, when buying anything made of plastic, should check whether and how it can be recycled.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Chris/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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.