Светлана Тихановская. Фото: t.me/tsikhanouskaya
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called on Belarusians, on the Day of Remembrance of Ancestors, to remember deceased loved ones and pass family stories on to future generations. She noted that the memory of loved ones is preserved not only in recollections, but also in everyday habits, family recipes and expressions that people inherit from their parents and older relatives.
“On Dziady, one especially wants to hear the voices of those who are no longer with us. Sometimes you prepare something using your grandmother’s recipe and remember how she bustled about in the kitchen. Or you hear a familiar expression and smile: that is how grandfather used to say it. The people themselves are no longer with us, but so much of them remains in our lives. Even in the way we welcome guests or call the children to dinner.
On Dziady, we gather to remember them. Grandmother and grandfather, parents, friends, the neighbour who knew us from childhood and always treated us to something tasty. We remember what they were like, what they loved and how they knew how to comfort us. Sometimes we cry, sometimes we laugh at a story we have heard so many times. And we are happy that there is someone nearby who remembers it too.
I would very much like our children to take part in such conversations as well. So that they can ask us questions, look through the family album together and find out whose smile or character they inherited. So that people they may never have seen can become close to them,” she said.
The democratic forces’ leader stressed that a part of Belarusian culture is passed down from generation to generation through memories, songs and family traditions.
“Once, our elders passed their memories, songs and family traditions on to us in exactly the same way. Thanks to this love and care, so much of what is ours, what is Belarusian, has been preserved through the generations. And now we ourselves can pass it on.
Today, not everyone can visit the graves of loved ones or gather at their parents’ home. But you can hold your own evening of remembrance wherever you are now. Prepare something familiar from childhood, light a candle, invite your loved ones. Start with something simple: ‘Do you remember?..’ Or tell a story that no one at the table has heard before.
Every family will have its own names and stories. And across Belarus and far beyond its borders, people will be remembering their own loved ones on these evenings. That gives me a particularly warm feeling: we are in different places, but we have so much in common. Let us preserve this. So that, many years from now, our grandchildren will invite their loved ones: ‘Come over. Today is Dziady,’” Tsikhanouskaya said.