Dziady: The Slavic Feast of the Forefathers and the Food Left for the Dead
Twice a year in the old Slavic lands—above all in the villages of what is now Belarus, Lithuania's Slavic marches, and eastern Poland—the family's most important guests arrived invisible, and supper was laid for them with more care than for any bishop. The feast is called Dziady : "the Grandfathers," "the Forefathers"—the name naming the guests—and it is among the most complete rites of ancestor-communion that Europe carried into modern times. On the appointed eves—the great autumn Dziady around the turn of October into November, and its spring twin—the household prepared a supper of many dishes (an odd number, by the strict form); the table was laid, the bench left clear, the windows or doors set open; and the dead of the family were called by name : summoned aloud, with formulas the ethnographers recorded— Holy grandfathers, we call you; holy grandfathers, come to us; there is everything here, whatever God has given; come to us! —to come in, warm themselv...