Danuta and Stanislav Mirovski, for instance, made sure they would get back from their holiday in Egypt in good time for one of Catholic Poland\'s biggest religious holidays on November 1.

\'We will be back on October 24,\' Stanislav, a Warsaw-based engineer, said before their departure. \'This still leaves us a week to prepare the graves.\'

His wife nodded in agreement. \'We will have everything done by All Saints\' Day,\' she concurred.

All Saints\' Day is for remembering the dead. Poles visit cemeteries, placing candles on graves to commemorate deceased family members.

Candles in all shapes, colours and sizes are on offer in the major supermarkets, where last-minute shopping is in full swing.

Pensioners are almost weighed down by packages of lights as they wait at the cashiers.

Justyna Kaminska, 78, counts quickly to see whether she has enough in her shopping basket. \'At our age, the number of graves goes up and there is hardly anyone left to tend to them,\' she sighs.

The elderly are not the only ones facing logistical problems. For many young people who have been living in Poland\'s big cities for years, visiting their families\' graves on All Saints\' Day is a must.

No easy task when a man, for instance, is from Zielona Gora in western Poland and his wife is from Olsztyn or Bialystok in the east.

Every year on All Saints\' Day, tens of thousands of people get stuck in traffic heading for the historic Warsaw cemetery of Powazki.

The municipal authorities organize special bus services to the main graveyards.

Already in the early afternoon, smoke from countless candles wafts over the walls of cemeteries, with a scent of wax floating in the air.

That may be about to change, with a growing number of people now placing battery-charged lights on graves, according to media reports.

Seven months before the UEFA European Football Championship is held in Poland and Ukraine, traffic jams are now likely to be even heavier than usual, as the construction of a new Warsaw underground line has prompted the closure of several main roads.

The long detours are already bringing traffic to a standstill during rush hour.

Train traffic on All Saints\' Day is also expected to chug along at a snail\'s pace, as the Polish railway network is being overhauled ahead of the football championships.

Traffic problems will not stop the elderly Kaminska. \'The dead have plenty of time,\' she says.

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