Dziady (lit. 'grandfathers, forefathers, eldfathers'; For example, presented in Polish literature in one of the most famous books written by Adam Mickiewicz „The Forefathers’ Night”. Dziady is a term in Slavic folklore for the spirits of the ancestors and a collection of pre-Christian rites, celebrations, rituals and customs that were dedicated to them. The essence of these rituals was the "communion of the living with the dead", namely, the establishment of relationships with the souls of the ancestors, periodically returning to Earth to their headquarters from the times of their lives. The aim of the ritual activities was to win the favor of the deceased, who were considered to be caretakers in the sphere of fertility. The name dziady was used in particular dialects mainly in Belarus, Poland, Polesia, Russia, and Ukraine (sometimes also in border areas, e.g. Podlachia, Smoleńsk Oblast,in Lithuania Aukštaitija), but under different other names (pomynky, przewody, radonitsa, zaduszki) there were very similar ritual practices, common among Slavs and Balts, and also in many European and even non-European cultures.
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Dziady in the context of Dziady (poem)
Dziady (Polish pronunciation: [ˈdʑadɨ] , 'Forefathers' Eve') is a poetic drama by the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. It is considered one of the greatest works of both Polish and European Romanticism. To George Sand and Georg Brandes, Dziady was a supreme realization of Romantic drama theory, to be ranked with such works as Goethe's Faust and Byron's Manfred.
The drama's title refers to Dziady, an ancient Slavic and Lithuanian feast commemorating the dead (the "forefathers"). The drama has four parts, the first of which was never finished. Parts I, II and IV were influenced by Gothic fiction and Byron's poetry. Part III joins historiosophical and individual visions of pain and annexation, especially under the 18th-century partitions of Poland. Part III was written ten years after the others and differs greatly from them. The first to have been composed is "Dziady, Part II", dedicated chiefly to the Dziady Slavic feast of commemoration of the dead which laid the foundations of the poem and is celebrated in what is now Belarus.