areas they were given their favorite dishes of the deceased. During this holiday, there were numerous prohibitions concerning the performance of various works and activities that could disturb or even threaten the peace of the souls on earth. The following were prohibited: loud behaviour at the table and suddenly getting up (which could frighten souls), cleaning from the table after supper (so that souls could feed), pouring water after washing dishes through the window (so as not to pour over the souls staying there) smoking in the oven (this way – as it was believed – souls would sometimes get home), sewing, weaving or spinning (so as not to sew or tie up a soul that could not return to "that world") or working on flax. Rite in literature The folk ritual of the dziady became an inspiration for the Adam Mickiewicz's Dziady, the central motif of which are the scenes of summoning souls during the village congregation, taking place in the abandoned chapel at the cemetery. The ritual is presided over by the Guślarz (Koźlarz, Huslar), who preaches ritual formulas and evokes the souls of the dead in purgatory. They are to tell them what they need to achieve salvation and to eat the food they have carried for them. Ethnological and literary studies clearly show that in Mickiewicz's work we deal with stylization. The author took numerous elements from Belarusian folklore, processed them artistically and created an original image. In fact, the rituals of the dziady took place in christian times, either in houses, or in cemeteries by the graves of their ancestors, or in places connected archetypically (and often also locally) with former centers of worship – on hills, under sacred trees, in places considered sacred (sometimes actually by chapels, which were often built on former places of pagan worship). Mickiewicz's references to terms such as "purgatory" and "salvation" are the result of combining pagan and Christian customs. Contemporary celebration To this day, in some regions of eastern Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and part of Russia, it is cultivated to carry on the graves of the dead a symbolic meal in clay pots. The majority of Slavic neo-pagan and rodnover movements also cultivate the dziady. Every year in Krakow, a traditional is held, directly related to the ancient custom of spring ancestors' holiday. In Belarus, dziady began to gain in importance in the late 1980s and were particularly