Case file · Folklore / legend
Mickiewicz's Forefathers' Eve (Dziady)
In 1823 Adam Mickiewicz published parts II and IV of 'Dziady', based on the autumn rite of the same name in Belarusian and Lithuanian villages, where food was set out at night for the souls of the dead, who were called and questioned.
1823 CE · 53.60, 25.82 · status: account
The account
The rite, led by a village elder (guślarz), was held secretly in chapels or cemeteries; the Church disapproved. Mickiewicz's drama made it a symbol of Polish and Belarusian Romanticism. In Belarus Dziady remains a family day of remembrance, and since 1988 also an occasion to commemorate victims of Soviet repression at Kurapaty.